James Franco takes heat in new Johnny Depp, Amber Heard trial biopic: ‘He hated him’

Actor James Franco catches heat in the upcoming Johnny Depp-Amber Heard biopic, “Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial.”

The 43-year-old “Pineapple Express” frontman is the superstar object of ire between 2022’s most infamous exes in the forthcoming film, premiering Friday on streaming service Tubi. 

“Another one with James Franco?” asks an annoyed Depp, portrayed by “Days of Our Lives” actor Mark Hapka, reading a script over Heard’s shoulder in a trailer for the flick.

Heard, played by actress Megan Davis, 33, responds, “Are you jealous of him, too?”

The production comes just four months after the formerly wed couple’s highly-publicized $50 million defamation suit. 

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star accused Heard — whom he met on the set of “The Rum Diary” in 2011, married in February 2015 and divorced in 2017 — of defaming him as an abuser in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post. 

Heard countersued Depp for $100 million for defamation, citing comments his lawyers made about her domestic violence allegations. 

During a staggering six weeks of testimony, Heard alleged that Depp kicked her in the back during a May 2014 flight from Boston to Los Angeles, owing to his suspicions that she was “secretly having a thing” with Franco. 

“He hated James Franco,” she explained while on the stand. “He was accusing me of having a thing with him in the past, since I had filmed ‘Pineapple Express’ with him.”

The two also shared a kissing scene in the 2015 film “The Adderall Diaries,” to Depp’s dismay.

Heard continued her testimony, sobbing, “[Depp] called me a slut” for locking lips with Franco in the movie. 

She went on to claim that an enraged Depp threw items at her and slapped her in the face during his airplane rant.

“It didn’t hurt my face, I just felt embarrassed that he would do that to me in front of others,” said the “Aquaman” star, adding that Depp proceeded to taunt her with epithets.

Heard then testified that her ex brutalized her with his boot. 

“I felt this boot in my back,” she said. “I fell to the floor. And no one said anything. No one did anything. You could have heard a pin drop.”

She continued, “I just remember feeling so embarrassed that he could kick me to the ground in front of people. And more embarrassing, I didn’t know what to do about it.”

James Franco — who was accused of sexually exploiting five women who attended his acting school, Studio4, in 2018 — has yet to publicly acknowledge being dragged into the the Depp vs. Heard trial. 

On June 1, the jury awarded Depp $15 million — $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages — after finding that Heard wrongfully damaged his character in her article. 

A “humiliated” Heard was granted $2 million in compensatory damages but no money for punitive damages.

So far, neither Depp nor Heard have commented on the upcoming film about their chaotic courtroom trial.