James Franco joins Stephen King’s adaptation

(Also Read: James Franco to play serial killer in ‘Rant’)

In the upcoming project, Franco, 36, will play Jake Epping. He is a high-school English teacher who travels back in time to early September 1958 and tries to prevent President Kennedy from being shot.

Epping’s mission, however, is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald and the past which doesn’t want to change.

The ’11/22/63′ project was announced last year.

“I’ve been a fan of Stephen King since I was in junior high school. The chance to work with him at all, let alone on a story so compelling, emotional and imaginative, is a dream,” Abrams said in a statement back then.