It was early this year when we started hearing rumblings about a new project from one of my favorite authors, Bret Easton Ellis(American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction). The film was titled The Canyons, and would be a smaller budgeted affair teaming him up with director, Paul Schrader(Auto Focus). Always exciting news when Ellis gets involved on the silver screen, and he was excited enough for it to mount a Kickstarter campaign to get the film financed. Well, it appears to have worked.
Ellis had recently tweeted that filming was set to begin next month, but he's now gone and made it official by announcing that The Canyons will shoot in LA from July 9th to the 31st.
That's not all, though. In fact, that's not even the biggest part of this whole story. Ellis has been championing porn star James Deen, star of like thousands of porno flicks over the last decade, to be the leading man, which Ellis has said will need to be comfortable with frontal nudity and realistic sex captured on screen. Yep, I think Deen fits the bill. As for who will play the female lead? None other than Lindsay Lohan...
Ellis: And I am beyond thrilled that James Deen and Lindsay Lohan will be playing the parts of Christian and Tara in THE CANYONS by BEE.
It's an interesting move for Lohan, who could be on the verge of a career resurgence as she's currently filming the telepic, Liz & Dick. The film has been described as something of an actor's showcase, and despite her many troubles, Lohan has always been able to act. So what is the film actually about?
Details are pretty thin, but it's pure Ellis all the way. All glitz, glamor, sex, and ambition, following five twenty-somethings in a thriller set in contemporary Hollywood. ThePlaylist managed to get a rundown of the principle characters:
Christian, a trust fund kid, power player and major manipulator, who is a film producer that enjoys filming his own three-way sex sessions; Tara, his girlfriend and former model; Ryan, a bartender and young actor who is angling for a role in Christian's horror movie; Gina, who works for Ryan and is in love with him and is also looking for a role in the horror pic and finally, Lindsay, a former actress turned yoga instructor who is sleeping with Christian, and falling in love with him.
Deen will be banging chicks as Christian, while Lohan's role is uncertain at this point. I guess it'd be too on the nose to think she'd be playing Lindsay, right? Tara seems like the most probable pick.
Let's just hope this turns out better than the last Ellis film, The Informers, one the more humorless and clueless efforts I've ever seen. The Canyons may not hit theaters, though, with a VOD/Netflix release planned.
