I used to think it was only an idiotic website. When I stumbled upon the show, I don't think I made it passed a minute. It was just so grating.

My favorite part of the TMZ clip is the TMZ female employee insulting Deen for being a porn star.

Bitch, you work for a glorified tabloid. Deen already has one-up on you.

My favorite part of that clip is when that same dumb broad basically told Harvey that they talk shit behind his back. He even looked at her like ORLY? I like Harvey, because he's a great businessman, but the rest of that TMZ staff is a joke. They act as if they're fucking curing cancer or something in reporting gossip news. The fuck?

Is this movie the triumphant return of Ed Wood? Sure looks like it.

If it is I look forward to it, I love Ed Wood's films.
This film reminds me of sleazy pulp trash like Fuller's The Naked Kiss.
And that is not a bad thing IMO.

Good NYT article. Schraeder's movies are usually good. I think it looks pretty good. There's only so much you can do with $250k. At that price, you can't even spend much on lighting.

Not anymore!

You should probably make a thread on that. No more IMAX for free?

No, I can still get IMAX for free, because I still have friends who can get me in.

I read an article about James Deen and I found this part of it pretty funny:

"I understood what porn was and everything when I was 6 years old and I don't think that having knowledge of what it was led me to my decision to be in porn.

So how did Deen make his transition from a young Jewish kid growing up in Southern California to a porn sensation? He claims that he first became interested in become a porn star when he was in kindergarten and found an old porn magazine.

"I picked it up and I'm like, 'Oh my God, this is the cool, this is awesome,'" he said. "It was this weird moment that I will always remember where I was like, this is what I want to be when I grow up. I want to do this."

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/...8629079&page=2

....weak bump.

Well... I thought it wasn't.

Legends are tough to please on a Sunday afternoon.

I thought it was worthy.

Weak response.

That's what Lindsay Lohan said.

LOL. nice.

I'm willing to bet if the press were as voracious and 24 hours a day in the 50's as it is now, most people would feel Marilyn Monroe was unwatchable because of all her on-screen antics.

I'm not saying that Lohan is at all comparable to Monroe, far from it, but I have no problem watching a movie with her in it.

I have no problem with Lohan, I haven't seen her in a movie since Mean Girls so she still has some credibility (imo Mean Girls is one of the best high school/college comedies of the last decade)

http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/new...t-a-treat.html


'Canyons' director on Lindsay Lohan: 'Tardiness, tantrums but a treat'


"Similarities?" he said. "Tardiness, unpredictability, tantrums, absences, neediness, psychodrama - yes, all that, but something more, that thing that keeps you watching someone on screen, that thing you can't take your eyes off of, that magic, that mystery."

Schrader added that both Monroe and Lohan "exist in the space between actors and celebrities, people whose professional and personal performances are more or less indistinguishable", suggesting that they both get their "unique attraction" from a "lack of control".

"We sense that the actress is not performing, that we are watching life itself," he wrote. "We call them 'troubled', 'tormented', 'train wrecks' - but we can't turn away. We can't stop watching. They get under our skin in a way that controlled performers can't."


Schrader went on to suggest that Lohan has "more natural acting talent" than Monroe, but claimed that both actresses have struggled to "fake it", saying: "She feels she must be experiencing an emotion in order to play it. This leads to all sorts of emotional turmoil, not to mention on-set delays and melodrama. It also leads, when the gods smile, to movie magic."

However, Schrader suggested that Lohan has had a harder experience of fame than Lohan, explaining that "our notions of acting, stardom, celebrity and talent have fundamentally changed" since Monroe was alive.

He pointed out that Monroe was often protected by the studio system, whereas Lohan "lives in a world of instant celebrity gratification Monroe could have only dreamed of".

"Paid for public appearances, paid to wear clothes, paid to pose, paid for gossip tips, paid for tweets," he said. "These rewards are available without the pretence of responsibility. On the other hand there's no system to protect today's celebrities from the media or the courts or themselves... It's not a positive environment for the performer."


Schrader admitted that he believes it must be "exhausting" to be Lohan, but added: "From a selfish point of view, from a director's point of view, that is, from my point of view, it was a treat to work with Lindsay.

"All the drama, the mishegas, all the stress - that means little. A director can shoot around misbehavior. He can't shoot around lack of charisma. I just wish it was easier for Lindsay."

Schrader previously exchanged words with Canyons star James Deen after the actor accused Schrader of having an "ego" and failing to respect him.

The Canyons is due to debut at the Venice Film Festival.

This is a movie about Lindsay's vag, right?

per IMDB this comes out August 3rd via IFC, which also means that it should be a video on demand release as well

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/b5uTtNLUmCA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

August 2nd, sweet.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/29/james_deen/

James Deen: “I no longer am willing to talk about Lindsay Lohan”

The "porn star next door" talks to Salon about "The Canyons" and why Hollywood's more cutthroat than porn

James Deen’s moment has arrived — that is, if you’re one of those people who believes that adult film stardom is somehow less than mainstream success. Deen himself wouldn’t agree.

The 27-year-old Deen, né Bryan Sevilla, has achieved massive success online as the so-called “porn star next door.” With his boyish looks and unthreatening physique, Deen’s a particular favorite of the women who watch films that have lately included “Jack Attack,” “Hypnosis,” and “Orgy University.” A GQ profile portrayed Deen as, at once, sunny and charming and possessed of a “Kryptonian psychosexual constitution,” one that simply won’t let up. And now he’s crossing over into “mainstream” cinema, with his starring role opposite Lindsay Lohan in “The Canyons” (due out August 9).

In “The Canyons,” Deen achieves a dream of playing a character written by favorite nihilistic novelist Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote the screenplay; the plot diverges little from Ellis’s general mien of California apocalypse, shadowy figures of imminent threat, and men with a taste for the worst humanity has to offer. To say more would be to spoil! But know this: Deen’s no villain in real life; he told Salon that the virtues of working on an adult film set include an enhanced level of respect, and described how frustrated he is with tabloid coverage of his castmate who, currently in rehab, is not able to promote the film herself.

Why did doing a mainstream film even appeal to you? Your career in adult film seems to be thriving.

Pretty much what happened was, I never particularly wanted any career in the mainstream or “straight” industry — whatever the movie industry is called these days. I always wanted to do exclusively adult films. But Bret Easton Ellis is someone I’ve been a fan of since I was a kid: I read “American Psycho,” “Less Than Zero,” and saw the movies. I wasn’t a die-hard Paul Schrader fan — I definitely admired his work, like “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver.”

What got me super into the idea of doing this movie was when I met with Bret and he told me their whole philosophy — Hollywood produces crap upon crap, no one’s doing things with craft in it. The principle of this movie is a group of people who want to make something. They’re not worried about how to sell it. They wanted to make it as cheaply as possible, and to make money back with video on demand and Netflix, to get crowd-funding with Kickstarter. It was a project just to make a project — and that thrilled me more than anything. Even more than working with Schrader and Bret, it was that mentality that excited me.

Would you do a Hollywood film again?

Doing it was such a great experience that — I’m not actively searching for work to be the next Hollywood star, but it was pretty fun. When someone sends me a script, I do read it seriously.

It’s apples and oranges. The adult film industry is just another form of entertainment. In the mainstream industry, there’s the movie industry and the TV industry, and in adult film, you have DVDs vs. the Internet and those are completely different. The only common thread they seem to have — from my very limited experience in TV and mainstream film and my vast experience in adult film — is the desire to entertain and create. There’s some artistic integrity in every field. And then you have Michael Bay: I don’t know if he has artistic integrity — he makes big blockbusters and they’re not good. In every industry, there are the labors of love and passion projects, and the people who have the desire to make their movies with lots of artistic integrity. Then there are the people who just want to make a buck.

Do you think that doing “The Canyons” will expose you to a new fanbase?

I have no idea. I had a weird meltdown six months ago. I have this t-shirt company. I have my own production company. And in the next 15 minutes, it’s gonna be over. I’m the flavor of the week! My friend from when I was a kid said, “You’ve never tried to be famous, you never had dreams of stardom, and all these things just happened because you’re being yourself. As long as you are personally happy, things should pan out okay.”

I’ve never done any research about who my fans are. I try to operate with the mentality that if something isn’t going to make me smile, there’s no point in doing it. It’d be cool if more people knew who I was. Then I could have a wider audience to sell baby panda T-shirts and, if they’re over 18 they can buy a membership to jamesdeen.com. The audience fuels my ability to do what I want to do. I always say, a good rule of thumb is to never read comments posted on the Internet.

What did you make of the New York Times Magazine piece that portrayed the set as a chaotic place and Lohan as a less-than-completely-professional co-star?

I thought it was a great article — a great read, really entertaining. I speak to the author from time to time still, and I told him it was like real life reflected in the mirror and retold for dramatic effect. Everything in it is true — but it’s not exaaactly how it went down.

There are such dark and apocalyptic themes in your movie — but your work is so fun and sunny, I gather.

What I really liked about this movie — well, first, Bret sent me the treatment to read and I really loved the story. Then, in addition to that, hearing the philosophy behind this movie, I got to work on Bret Easton Ellis’s script and met Paul Schrader and [producer] Braxton [Pope] — and then Lindsay Lohan signed on! It was a bonus! “Lindsay Lohan signed on, this’ll be great!”

But it wasn’t a matter of experimenting in areas I wasn’t already experimenting in. I act every day — I do all different sorts of characters. I have fun with it! It’s not take as seriously as a mainstream movie. The primary objective of an adult movie is to arouse, not to make people think deeply about character development. The role I wanted to play in this movie was the stereotypical Bret Easton Ellis high-functioning character you secretly root for. Patrick Bateman [the protagonist of "American Psycho"] is hands-down the bad guy, but kind of the protagonist at the same time. You have these characters who aren’t “good,” but you’re rooting for them.

I just really enjoy creating. I really like making something. The fact that I got to watch it come to life from day one, from not even anything but a story in Bret’s head — I’m pretty excited about it. I hope people see it and don’t think I suck.

Did working on this film clarify any opinions you had about working on adult films?

Adult films are exactly the same as mainstream films. They run the same way. With budgetary things, it’s often a skeleton crew. As far as coverage and stuff, it depends on what kind of thing it is. If it’s, like, “I’m the plumber, here to fix your pipes,” obviously it’s little more one guy with a camera and some lighting guys. But the project I worked on today was not a plot-sensitive thing. There are a lot of people from mainstream film as well, with a high production value and the same amount of time. But mainstream is just the acting part — in adult film, after you do the acting part, then you do the sex part. By comparison, mainstream’s pretty easy!

Do you feel that the literary work of Bret Easton Ellis has contemporary merit?

With “Less Than Zero,” there are certain aspects that can be still relevant today. “American Psycho” is a timeless tale.

What about for you, personally? Have you met the sort of creepy West Coast hustlers that haunt his work?

I haven’t — until doing this movie, since then and during my exploration into mainstream world, I have. All the stereotypes, I’ve met them now. And it’s made me embrace the adult world.

It’s not everybody. I’ve met a complete range of various people. But there are a good amount of pretty stereotypical scumbag L.A. people. Thank god I have another job! Put it that way. Some people I’ve had meetings with, I’d say, “I’m gonna just leave.” Hollywood’s got some dirt to it.

Say more about that. You never encountered “dirt” like that in the adult film world?

The adult film world vs. the mainstream world — mainstream people are motivated by things like glitz, glamor, fame, money. The true artists exist, but there are also plenty of the opposite — people a little less awesome. People’s primary motivation in the adult world is that they really like sex. They have their motivations but because they’re engaged in sexual activity with near-strangers, everyone’s overly respectful. The whole thing in the New York Times [Magazine] article which I found very flattering was how it showed that I treat people well. In the adult world, you treat everyone the way you want to be treated. People are overly careful in order to make sure everyone’s comfort level is respected. Everyone stops, and everyone listens. Because you can’t force someone to have sex with someone. Everyone promotes equality and friendship and all those wonderful things.

You don’t think “mainstream” Hollywood will change you?

I hope not. I feel like there’s no reason you can’t just politely excuse yourself from any situation. If someone’s treating you poorly, leave. I’m not worried about people treating me poorly. I’m 27 — I’m young, I’m a child. I’m pretty set in my ways and have been formed well by my parents. I hope that doesn’t change.

What are your thoughts, in retrospect, having worked with Lindsay Lohan, an actress who’s so commonly portrayed as turbulent?

Here’s the thing with Lindsay, and I really feel bad saying this. I no longer am willing to talk about her. I try to be transparent and tell the truth. I’ve done a good job of telling the same story, the same time — every day. People were tired of the same story and they twist it in a tabloidy way. If you look at articles, one will say “James Deen praises Lindsay” and one will say “James Deen slams Lindsay” and the quote is the same.

I can say she was great to work with. It was an honor to have her included on the film. Braxton and Schrader asked if I was cool with her, and I said, “Hell yeah, of course!” She’s gonna bring the movie to a limelight we ourselves could not have done.

Jeeze. I've been following this production the whole time. That new trailer makes it look like they really changed things around. Compare it to the original "grindhouse" trailer (which was an interesting failure).