James Franco in talks to play 'X-Men' character Multiple Man in solo film

Nov. 17 (UPI) -- James Franco is being eyed to star in a solo film featuring X-Men character and mutant Multiple Man.

Franco is in negotiations to join the project which is being developed by Fox's X-Men producer Simon Kinberg with a script by Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg, noted The Hollywood Reporter.

Multiple Man, also known as Jamie Madrox, is a mutant who can create and control multiple duplicates of himself at once. The character has been featured in both X-Men and Fantastic Four comics and was previously portrayed by actor Eric Dane in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.

Franco and Kinberg are also collaborating on The Hardy Men which Kinberg has scripted along with Rodney Rothman based on The Hardy Boys series of mystery novels, Deadline reported. Franco and his brother Dave are being eyed to potentially star in the film.

The Multiple Man film is the latest X-Men project from Fox which is set to release New Mutants, Deadpool 2 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix directed by Kinberg in 2018. The studio has also announced that Channing Tatum's long in-development Gambit film will release on Feb. 14, 2019.