James Franco headed back to GH to act, direct

James Franco is living up to an earlier promise that he'd return to General Hospital after the conclusion of his initial short-term engagement. The actor has confirmed that he'll be back for an episode this spring -- and he'll even take a turn behind the camera. Franco has appeared in more than 20 episodes of General Hospital.

Though his short-term guest-starring stint on General Hospital has now come to an end, fans of the ABC soap have not seen the last of James Franco (Franco). The award-winning actor will be back -- both in front of and behind the camera.

Sometime this spring, Franco will co-direct an episode of General Hospital that will take place in a New York art gallery. There, Franco will be debuting a collection of art that will relate to his work on General Hospital.

In an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal in December, Franco touted his eventual return to daytime. "After all of the Franco episodes are aired, my character's storyline will be advanced in a special episode filmed in a 'legitimate' New York gallery," Franco wrote. "One more layer will be added to this already layer-heavy experiment. If all goes according to plan, it will definitely be weird. But is it art?"

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The web site Vulture also reports that Franco may be collaborating with "video and performance artist Kalup Linzy, known for his cross-dressing soap-opera spoofs" during the engagement. The goal is said to be the creation of a soap opera within a soap opera.

Franco made headlines in October when is was announced that he'd be appearing in a story arc on General Hospital. The actor had made a name for himself in feature films like Milk and Pineapple Express, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture. Some industry experts claimed that appearing a soap would "kill" his career. Franco downplayed critics' skepticism and offered nothing but praise to the folks involved in putting soap operas together.