James Franco Returns to the Comedy Genre

James Franco ("11.22.63"), Tiffany Haddish ("The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent") and others have joined the cast of the psychedelic comedy Toad ("Toad").

The cast also includes Craig Robinson ("The Office"), Katt Williams ("Atlanta"), James Paxton ("Twister 2").

The events will revolve around two unlucky but charming marijuana lovers who accidentally find themselves in the service of a criminal authority named Charles (Robinson). They are tasked with transporting a mysterious box from Los Angeles to Vegas. However, almost immediately, the heroes' childish curiosity takes over, and, opening the package, they discover live Colorado toads inside. When the animals begin to overheat, the couple makes an extremely unsuccessful attempt to save them with the help of artificial respiration, as a result of which they receive a powerful dose of the toads' hallucinogenic secretion.

What follows is a crazy journey, in which they are accompanied by a huge talking toad-spirit named Earl (Williams), as well as a whole string of colorful characters, including a dangerous biker gang, a sex cult, a chainsaw maniac and a crazy elite French chef - all of them eager to seize the valuable cargo with toads for their sinister purposes.

The director will be Adam Rifkin ("Detroit Rock City"). Filming is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of this year.