Nearly 20 years after Gus Van Sant released My Own Private Idaho, the director revisits the film in a joint exhibition with James Franco, entitled "Unfinished," on view at the Gagosian Gallery in L.A. now through April 9, 2011. The director and actor became interested in working on the project together while working on Van Sant's Oscar-winning film, Milk. Van Sant had shared some of the dailies and other extraneous footage that never made it into the final cut of the My Own Private Idaho, and Franco, allegedly mesmerized by River Pheonix's performance in the film, was inspired to splice together the outtakes into a new film, rather obviously titled My Own Private River with an accompanying soundtrack by Michael Stipe. Seven of Van Sant's Peyton-esque watercolors will accompany the short film. See two more of those, after the jump.
