NEW YORK — “The Canyons” starring Lindsay Lohan and James Deen will premiere at Lincoln Center on July 29 as part of “An Evening With Paul Schrader,” giving the public an opportunity to witness what the director calls “cinema for the post-theatrical era.”
The event will feature a discussion between Schrader and Kent Jones, the New York Film Festival program director, following the screening.
A poster project for crowdfunding hopefuls, the film grew out of Kickstarter and garnered attention for its controversial focal actors: porn star crossover Deen and Lohan, a perennial tabloid target.
Schrader recently told Film Comment Magazine that Lohan was initially worried Deen’s contentious presence might overshadow her own.
“The first read-through, I looked over at her notepad and she was making a list of other actors who could play these roles,” Schrader said in the July/August issue. “I said, ‘Lindsay, I’m not going to let you recast this movie.’ She was always wary of Deen. A little bit because of the porn thing, but also her fear was that he would steal her thunder.”
Bret Easton Ellis’ original script follows the tribulations of a young movie producer Christian (Deen) who makes films to preserve his trust fund and his actress girlfriend Tara (Lohan), who tries to hide a former love affair. When Christian discovers Tara’s secret, the “past unravels all of their lives, resulting in deceit, paranoia, cruel mind games and ultimately violence," the film’s Facebook page says.
“’The Canyons’ is a visually and tonally precise, acid-etched horror story of souls wandering through a hyper-materialist hell, with a fearless and, I think, stunning performance by Lindsay Lohan at its center,” Jones said.
The film is slated for a general theater release on August 9 and will be available on video-on-demand platforms August 2.
