In 2011, "Disaster Artist" actor and director James Franco filmed a 32-minute test reel of "Blood Meridian" starring his brother Dave Franco, Mark Pelligrino, and the late Luke Perry. The short feature was a depiction of one of the book's more notable scenarios — when the gang first encounters Judge Holden and he teaches them to make gunpowder in order to ward off an attacking horde of Indians. Franco's project was designed as a proposal to copyright holders to attain film rights to the novel, and rumors of a feature-length motion picture proliferated shortly thereafter (via Indie Wire). 

"We made [the screen test] as a way to convince Scott Rudin to give us the rights," Franco shared with EW in 2011. "It was like, why should he give it to me when Ridley Scott didn't make it? So I called him up and said, 'I'm planning on doing this. You don't have to give me any money, I can finance this shoot. I showed it to him and he loved it." Deadline reported in 2016 that, despite efforts from James Franco and a team of others including Russel Crowe, a cinematic depiction of "Blood Meridian" was no longer — or likely never was — in the works. Initial conversations about the prospective feature were ultimately squashed, and no such rumors about a Franco-directed "Blood Meridian" film have surfaced since. 

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