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Fox is developing a movie based on Marvel character Jamie Madrox, aka Multiple Man, with actor James Franco potentially taking on the lead role, according to a report from Deadline. Multiple Man is best known for his association with the X-Men and spinoff group X-Factor.
Multiple Man is a mutant who can create and control clones of himself. He first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1975 in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4, and originally clashed with the superhero group after his unchecked cloning drove him mad. With the help of X-Men leader Professor Xavier and the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards, Madrox was able to more reliably control his self-cloning powers.
The character was created by the late Len Wein, along with Chris Claremont and John Buscema. Multiple Man was a relatively minor character in the X-Men comics until starring roles in the 1987 miniseries Fallen Angels and the second incarnation of mutant superhero group X-Factor. The character made a brief appearance in the 2006 movie X-Men: The Last Stand.
The Multiple Man movie is being written by Wonder Woman screenwriter Allan Heinberg and produced by Simon Kinberg, a writer and producer on most of Fox’s X-Men movies. Fox has a number of X-Men-adjacent films in the works, including Deadpool 2, New Mutants and Gambit.