James Franco writes, directs, produces, and acts in a lot of movies, so you’d be forgiven for forgetting that he’s currently in post-production on his next directorial effort, an adaptation of the Steve Erickson novel Zeroville.  The story revolves around an architecture student and cinephile who arrives on Hollywood Boulevard in 1969 and scores a job as a film editor, eventually discovering the frames of a secret film hidden within the reels of every movie ever made.  Franco stars in the movie and put together quite possibly his most impressive cast to date (Seth Rogen plays infamous filmmaker John Milius) and now he’s unveiled the very first clip featuring a screaming Will Ferrell.  It’s a brief look at what will likely be one very nutty movie.

Watch the short Zeroville movie clip after the jump.  The film also stars Jacki Weaver, Megan Fox, Danny McBride, Dave Franco, Joey King, Craig Robinson, and Horatio Sanz.

Franco unveiled the clip on his Instagram, which is fairly poor quality due to the fact that he simply recorded it off of a TV.  Regardless, it’s funny stuff.

Here’s a synopsis for Erickson’s book:

Hailed as one of Erickson’s finest and most daring novels, Zeroville is a unique love letter to film. It centers on the story of Vikar, a young architecture student so enthralled with the movies that his friends call him “cinéautistic.” With an intensely religious childhood behind him, and tattoos of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift on his head, he arrives in Hollywood where he’s mistaken for a member of the Charles Manson “family” and eventually scores a job as a film editor. Vikar discovers the frames of a secret film within the reels of every movie ever made, and sets about splicing them together—an undertaking that takes on frightening theological dimensions. Electrifying and darkly comic, Zeroville dives into the renegade American cinema of the ’70s and ’80s and emerges into an era for which we have no name. [BN.com]