James Franco’s ‘As I Lay Dying’ Bypassing Theaters for VOD

James Franco‘s As I Lay Dying won’t be coming to a theater near you after all.

Millennium is bypassing a theatrical release for the drama that James Franco directed and co-wrote. Instead, the film, which was supposed to hit theaters Friday, Sept. 27, will be available on EST for all retailers including iTunes on Oct. 22, and on VOD/iVOD and DVD on Nov. 5.

FILM REVIEW: As I Lay Dying

At its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, As I Lay Dying, which also stars Franco, received a favorable review from THR‘s critic Todd McCarthy, who wrote: “A rarified art film all the way, one that will divide even brainy students and specialized cinema types, this is by a long way the best of the eight features the mind-bogglingly prolific actor-director-writer has made and is, as such, a big surprise.”

Based on the novel by William Faulkner, the film is very much in the same vein as the original work, which would be a difficult sell to a general audience rather than the art house crowd. The script, co-written by Matt Rager, follows an impoverished Mississippi family that struggles to give its recently deceased matriarch an appropriate burial.

Tim Blake Nelson, Danny McBride, Logan Marshall-Green and Ahna O’Reilly also star in the film. Lee Caplin, Matthew O’Toole, Robert Van Norden, Caroline Aragon, Miles Levy and Vince Jolivette produced.