Netflix, in their first appearance at the semi-annual Television Critics Association conference, presented the first trailer for Hemlock Grove. The supernatural thriller from producer Eli Roth is getting its premiere on Netflix on April 19th, with all 13 "episodes" available on launch day. "It's like a long 13-hour movie as opposed to episodic television," executive producer Mark Verheiden said.
The story, on it's surface, sounds like Twin Peaks: when a high school girl in Hemlock Grove (a steel community, as opposed to Twin Peaks' lumber community) is murdered, the concoction of bizarre townsfolk are drawn into the case. Unlike Twin Peaks, however, Hemlock Grove leans squarely into supernatural territory - no doubt about it.
"There's no shortage of monsters on the show and they tend to fall on different varieties -- like what separates a human from a monster," said Brian McGreevy, whose novel, Hemlock Grove was the basis for the series. Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell and Freya Tingley star.
The producers on the panel said that emotional violence would be as important as physical violence, a hallmark of Roth’s films. “Eli is a pretty fascinating and multilayered guy, a protégé of David Lynch”, McGreevy said. The writer described himself as a fan of horror genre but said of the series: “This is like Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? with more people getting mauled, actually.”
That being said, McGreevy said that the content featured in Hemlock Grove would never have fit network TV standards and compared the amount of violence and other content to be on the level of what one would find on premium cable channels Showtime and HBO.
McGreevy also was asked about the differences between working in a new entertainment platform and traditional network and cable TV. He said the deal with Netflix came together shortly after Netflix announced its deal for the original series House Of Cards. “We said, shoot, that’s the future of the medium,” McGreevy said. He did acknowledge that he shopped his novel to the “more conventional premium networks, but we were holding out for Netflix because they were the most exciting partners.
The writer-producers said that although the first 13 episodes are based on the novel, they have pitched additional seasons that would expand the story beyond the book. The first 13 episodes of the series debuts April 19.
* that's is Radha Mitchell blonde much younger cousin Penelope receiving a loving finger-fucking. Penelope supposed to show her tits in couple of episodes. Famke Janssen the ultimate cock-teaser will probably remain a CT added help of body double for more risque scenes. That butt probably belongs to Kaniehtiio Horn but praying it will be 18-years Aussie teen babe Freya Tingley (possible nudity). Here is the bad news. Apparently we could be in for body-double galore by Canadian models/C-lister for most of the principle cast if the reports I received are accurate.
The story, on it's surface, sounds like Twin Peaks: when a high school girl in Hemlock Grove (a steel community, as opposed to Twin Peaks' lumber community) is murdered, the concoction of bizarre townsfolk are drawn into the case. Unlike Twin Peaks, however, Hemlock Grove leans squarely into supernatural territory - no doubt about it.
"There's no shortage of monsters on the show and they tend to fall on different varieties -- like what separates a human from a monster," said Brian McGreevy, whose novel, Hemlock Grove was the basis for the series. Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell and Freya Tingley star.
The producers on the panel said that emotional violence would be as important as physical violence, a hallmark of Roth’s films. “Eli is a pretty fascinating and multilayered guy, a protégé of David Lynch”, McGreevy said. The writer described himself as a fan of horror genre but said of the series: “This is like Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? with more people getting mauled, actually.”
That being said, McGreevy said that the content featured in Hemlock Grove would never have fit network TV standards and compared the amount of violence and other content to be on the level of what one would find on premium cable channels Showtime and HBO.
McGreevy also was asked about the differences between working in a new entertainment platform and traditional network and cable TV. He said the deal with Netflix came together shortly after Netflix announced its deal for the original series House Of Cards. “We said, shoot, that’s the future of the medium,” McGreevy said. He did acknowledge that he shopped his novel to the “more conventional premium networks, but we were holding out for Netflix because they were the most exciting partners.
The writer-producers said that although the first 13 episodes are based on the novel, they have pitched additional seasons that would expand the story beyond the book. The first 13 episodes of the series debuts April 19.
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| Radha Rani Amber Indigo Anunda Mitchell in Feast of Love |
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Californication - Season 6 - New Episodes Promo [Maggie Grace getting aggressive with David]
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* Ellen symbolizes everything that is fucked up about Americans when it comes to sexuality/nudity and violence. She feels the former is 'vulgar' and practically revels in the latter. It's not female empowerment if you take a person life in most violent manner in the name of equality (if the boys can do it...). The truth of the matter is she hiding behind 'nudity is demeaning' nonsense to cover up the usual womanly insecurities about her body. And you wonder why Spartacus makers are reluctant to hire Americans for pivotal roles. Saxa is a role 'more intent on a kill than caring about her brazen state of nudity in the heat of battle' but somehow Ellen convinced the producers to spare her from the 'vulgarity' she talked about. There is no escaping this season what with other girls pulling their nudity shift while Ellen - a mother hen figure for them - continues to offer excuses. She was reluctant but we get clear view of her ass and briefly her nips in her first sex scene. I don't about the rest of the remaining second half of the season so I'm hopeful for full blown nudity despite Ellen's 'vulgarity' comment. By the way all three girls gets naked to a varied degree. Newcomer Gwendoline Taylor probably the best with a full-frontal.
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beauty queen Brittany Mason is slowly but surely will soon show us her made-in-Indiana pubes.
(credit goes to B.Sampson for the pics)
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'True Blood's' Alan Ball on His New Show on 'Skinemax'
The creator of "Banshee" tells THR that after HBO passed and its sister network picked up the show, "I never felt like 'that's a step down.'"
This story first appeared in the Jan. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
Buzzed-about new pulp thriller series Banshee, debuting Jan. 11, originally was developed by Alan Ball for HBO, home to his True Blood.
But the network didn't pick up the small-town drama and its sluttier sister, Cinemax -- beginning to experiment with its own prestige-minded original programming -- picked it up.
"I never felt like 'Skinemax, that's a step down,' " says Ball. "If [the executives] are looking to redefine it, that's great. When we were at HBO, we were dialing back on the pulp nature. At Cinemax we went to our original pitch again: high-octane entertainment, violent and clever, yet complex. It also allows us to treat the sexuality in the show in a very frank and adult manner. We don't have to hold back."
But the network didn't pick up the small-town drama and its sluttier sister, Cinemax -- beginning to experiment with its own prestige-minded original programming -- picked it up.
"I never felt like 'Skinemax, that's a step down,' " says Ball. "If [the executives] are looking to redefine it, that's great. When we were at HBO, we were dialing back on the pulp nature. At Cinemax we went to our original pitch again: high-octane entertainment, violent and clever, yet complex. It also allows us to treat the sexuality in the show in a very frank and adult manner. We don't have to hold back."
'Banshee,' shot in Charlotte, screeches onto TV
'Banshee'
Series premiere 10-11 p.m. Friday, Cinemax
A man and a woman have graphic casual sex. An Asian transvestite curses a blue streak. An innocent bystander gets shot in the face on a city street. All this happens before the opening credits even roll on the pilot episode of “Banshee,” a new original series from HBO-owned premium-cable network Cinemax.
Like Showtime hit “Homeland,” “Banshee” is a drama that deals with a criminal underworld and revolves around some sort of larger mystery. Like “Homeland,” “Banshee” is filmed primarily in and around Charlotte. But that’s where the similarities end.
“Banshee’s” plot: An ex-convict (Antony Starr) steals the identity of a small-town sheriff – aided by a scheme that may make you groan, but just go with it – and tries to reconnect with his former partner-in-crime/lover (Ivana Milicevic), who has been leading a quietly domestic life in Banshee, Pa., under a false cover for years.
The colorful cast of supporting characters introduced in the first two episodes include the profane Asian transvestite, Amish kids with questionable morals, a crime boss so wicked he’ll cut off a minion’s finger and feed it to his dog, and – well, you get the picture.
“This isn’t ‘Touched By an Angel,’ ” says Milicevic, who herself performs a steamy sex scene in the pilot.
Created by David Schickler and Jonathan Tropper, the series made headlines initially because of its executive producer Alan Ball, who created “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood” for HBO. In fact, “Banshee” was initially conceived as an HBO original series.
But “HBO migrated it over to Cinemax since it had this kind of pulpy flavor to it, which was a little more gritty than some of HBO’s other stuff and the brand,” says show runner Greg Yaitanes, who formerly ran “House” for Fox. At the time, “Cinemax was re-branding itself and defining its new platform of high-end pulp, high-end genre programming.” (“Banshee” is the channel’s third original series, joining “Strike Back” and “Hunted.” Yaitanes points to films like “A History of Violence,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Warrior,” and Martin Scorsese’s films as influences.)
Location scouting took producers all over the U.S., including Pennsylvania, since the story is set there; they also considered Canada.
“North Carolina is an excellent match for Amish country,” Yaitanes says. Plus, “it was the right mix of having a strong crew base, as well as the tax rebate.”
The movie and TV industry can get a refund on 25 percent of salaries and money they spend on taxable items in North Carolina, up to $20 million per project. It’s one of the most competitive tax breaks of its kind, and is responsible for luring major projects like “Homeland” and Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games” movie.
Then there was the look of the greater Charlotte area.
“Five towns make Banshee: Monroe, Mooresville, Lincolnton, Gastonia, and Waxhaw,” Yaitanes says. “No one town captured everything that Banshee was, but everything existed in that area, and it allowed us to go to a lot of different places and make that town.”
They found Banshee’s police station, bus depot and train depot in Mooresville; its slaughterhouse, a local diner and Milicevic’s character’s house in Gastonia; the crime boss’s mansion in Waxhaw; the Banshee courthouse in Monroe; and a local watering hole on Old Statesville Road in north Charlotte.
Sets for select interiors were built on a sound stage in warehouses along Reames Road just north of Sunset Road off Interstate 77. Uptown Charlotte stands in for Harrisburg, Pa., in Episode 4.
Milicevic, 38, a former Bond girl (“Casino Royale”), rented a furnished apartment in Dilworth from spring till fall and named Soul Gastrolounge in Plaza Midwood, Amelie’s in NoDa, Tony’s Ice Cream in Gastonia, and the U.S. National Whitewater Center as some of her local favorites.
The actress loved the weather, and loved the people; she found North Carolinians to largely be sweet, whereas Los Angelenos can be “snooty and snarky,” she says. When she left, “I remember thinking, ‘I’m really gonna miss this. I’m gonna miss driving on the street and people being like, ‘Yeah, go ahead! Cut in!’ It’s not like a battle everywhere you go.”
She hopes to come back, but time will tell. Cinemax announced a year ago that it had ordered a full 10-episode season, and since the channel’s programming depends less on viewership numbers than on total subscribers – barring a catastrophe – fans of the show will get their 10 episodes.
As for Season 2? There are no guarantees, though Yaitanes and the writers are optimistic, having already mapped out the series’ next chapter. “We’re just waiting on the official word to go ahead.”
Milicevic – who had to fight for the role and feels “very lucky” to have landed it – is crossing her fingers as hard as she can. “I’ll believe it when I officially am looking for another place to live in Charlotte.”
'Banshee' star relishes sexy role
Ivana Miličević has been doing film and TV work for 17 years, but her role on Season 1 of "Banshee" -- which premieres on Cinemax at 10 p.m. Friday -- marks a couple of firsts for the Bosnian-born actress.
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'Banshee'
Series premiere 10-11 p.m. Friday, Cinemax
A man and a woman have graphic casual sex. An Asian transvestite curses a blue streak. An innocent bystander gets shot in the face on a city street. All this happens before the opening credits even roll on the pilot episode of “Banshee,” a new original series from HBO-owned premium-cable network Cinemax.
Like Showtime hit “Homeland,” “Banshee” is a drama that deals with a criminal underworld and revolves around some sort of larger mystery. Like “Homeland,” “Banshee” is filmed primarily in and around Charlotte. But that’s where the similarities end.
“Banshee’s” plot: An ex-convict (Antony Starr) steals the identity of a small-town sheriff – aided by a scheme that may make you groan, but just go with it – and tries to reconnect with his former partner-in-crime/lover (Ivana Milicevic), who has been leading a quietly domestic life in Banshee, Pa., under a false cover for years.
The colorful cast of supporting characters introduced in the first two episodes include the profane Asian transvestite, Amish kids with questionable morals, a crime boss so wicked he’ll cut off a minion’s finger and feed it to his dog, and – well, you get the picture.
“This isn’t ‘Touched By an Angel,’ ” says Milicevic, who herself performs a steamy sex scene in the pilot.
Created by David Schickler and Jonathan Tropper, the series made headlines initially because of its executive producer Alan Ball, who created “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood” for HBO. In fact, “Banshee” was initially conceived as an HBO original series.
But “HBO migrated it over to Cinemax since it had this kind of pulpy flavor to it, which was a little more gritty than some of HBO’s other stuff and the brand,” says show runner Greg Yaitanes, who formerly ran “House” for Fox. At the time, “Cinemax was re-branding itself and defining its new platform of high-end pulp, high-end genre programming.” (“Banshee” is the channel’s third original series, joining “Strike Back” and “Hunted.” Yaitanes points to films like “A History of Violence,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Warrior,” and Martin Scorsese’s films as influences.)
Location scouting took producers all over the U.S., including Pennsylvania, since the story is set there; they also considered Canada.
“North Carolina is an excellent match for Amish country,” Yaitanes says. Plus, “it was the right mix of having a strong crew base, as well as the tax rebate.”
The movie and TV industry can get a refund on 25 percent of salaries and money they spend on taxable items in North Carolina, up to $20 million per project. It’s one of the most competitive tax breaks of its kind, and is responsible for luring major projects like “Homeland” and Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games” movie.
Then there was the look of the greater Charlotte area.
“Five towns make Banshee: Monroe, Mooresville, Lincolnton, Gastonia, and Waxhaw,” Yaitanes says. “No one town captured everything that Banshee was, but everything existed in that area, and it allowed us to go to a lot of different places and make that town.”
They found Banshee’s police station, bus depot and train depot in Mooresville; its slaughterhouse, a local diner and Milicevic’s character’s house in Gastonia; the crime boss’s mansion in Waxhaw; the Banshee courthouse in Monroe; and a local watering hole on Old Statesville Road in north Charlotte.
Sets for select interiors were built on a sound stage in warehouses along Reames Road just north of Sunset Road off Interstate 77. Uptown Charlotte stands in for Harrisburg, Pa., in Episode 4.
Milicevic, 38, a former Bond girl (“Casino Royale”), rented a furnished apartment in Dilworth from spring till fall and named Soul Gastrolounge in Plaza Midwood, Amelie’s in NoDa, Tony’s Ice Cream in Gastonia, and the U.S. National Whitewater Center as some of her local favorites.
The actress loved the weather, and loved the people; she found North Carolinians to largely be sweet, whereas Los Angelenos can be “snooty and snarky,” she says. When she left, “I remember thinking, ‘I’m really gonna miss this. I’m gonna miss driving on the street and people being like, ‘Yeah, go ahead! Cut in!’ It’s not like a battle everywhere you go.”
She hopes to come back, but time will tell. Cinemax announced a year ago that it had ordered a full 10-episode season, and since the channel’s programming depends less on viewership numbers than on total subscribers – barring a catastrophe – fans of the show will get their 10 episodes.
As for Season 2? There are no guarantees, though Yaitanes and the writers are optimistic, having already mapped out the series’ next chapter. “We’re just waiting on the official word to go ahead.”
Milicevic – who had to fight for the role and feels “very lucky” to have landed it – is crossing her fingers as hard as she can. “I’ll believe it when I officially am looking for another place to live in Charlotte.”
'Banshee' star relishes sexy role
Ivana Miličević has been doing film and TV work for 17 years, but her role on Season 1 of "Banshee" -- which premieres on Cinemax at 10 p.m. Friday -- marks a couple of firsts for the Bosnian-born actress.It's the first time she's been the female lead on a TV series, and it was her first time in North Carolina, which is where all 10 episodes of the series were shot last year.
In "Banshee," Miličević plays a former thief who has been leading a quietly domestic life in Banshee, Pa., under a false cover for years. Her husband-and-two-kids existence is idyllic ... until her old partner-in-crime/lover (Antony Starr) comes back into her life, having stolen the identity of her small town's new sheriff.
Miličević is hardly a household name, but you've probably seen her on-screen before. She's a former Bond girl ("Casino Royale"), and famously appeared opposite Will Smith in 1998's "Enemy of the State" (as an amused salesgirl in a lingerie shop). She also played an American hottie in the British-based Christmas rom-com "Love Actually."
But she calls Carrie the role of a lifetime for her.
"I just love this part," Miličević says. "It’s very lucky and ... it’s rare for a female character to be written so well, and so emotional, and so in love, and so torn, and so tough, and so sexual."
"I loved the script. ... When I read it, it read very pulpy, and I was like, 'Wow, this is so kind Quentin Tarantino-ey in a way, like Coen Brother-ey, and funny in its heightened reality, but so emotional, because I really can feel this love story. So first and foremost, probably the love story drew me in. Second of all ... look at what I get to play. I get to fight. I get to train. I get to love. I get to be sexy. I mean, if not now, when?"
She also loved North Carolina.
"I’m from Michigan, so some bits of it reminded me of Michigan. Especially in the summer. When I got there, I noticed all the wild blackberry bushes everywhere. So I couldn’t wait for those to ripen. And I was really looking forward to the fireflies."
She also didn't mind that it was one of the hottest years on record.
"I loved the weather. I loved it when it got hot. I was just like, 'Come on, bring it.' ... In L.A., it’s never too cold. It gets a little hot for a little bit. But I’m talkin’ some good old-fashioned humidity. I could handle it. I was like, 'Bring it.' I loved it."
Oh, and "Banshee" marked one other key first for Miličević: It was the first time she'd ever taken her clothes off for a role.
Oh, and "Banshee" marked one other key first for Miličević: It was the first time she'd ever taken her clothes off for a role.
"I've never wanted to. I've never been inspired to. But for this, I was," says Miličević, 38. "I was like, 'Oh, for this, it needs to be done, and it needs to be done well. It needs to not be done with a sheet wrapped around me; it needs to be done like a husband and wife do it. ... I just kind of wanted it to be natural. And I don't really find them gratuitous because ... it's part of the story."
In the series pilot airing Friday night, things get hot and heavy between Miličević and on-screen husband Rus Blackwell -- although her character, Carrie, actually has former flame Lucas (Starr) on the brain.
And yeah, believe it or not, there's character development going on here.
"I was telling my family, they were like, 'Oh, we just won’t watch (the sex scene).' But I said, 'No, you kind of have to, because there’s story points in it. It’s not just there to be there, like, 'Hey, let’s take a moment and get turned on.'
Banshee: Amish Country Noir
Bufurd T. Pusser would appreciate the new get-tough sheriff of Banshee, PA, were he not an ex-con, living under an assumed identity. It sounds like a clever Cornell Woolrich set-up, but Alan (True Blood) Ball’s new Cinemax series, created by Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler, is more about action than suspense. Whatever works. As it happens, the first two episodes of Banshee work pretty well. There will be plenty of mayhem for relatively grown-up audiences when Banshee premieres this Friday on Cinemax (promo here).
His name is not really Lucas Hood. That was the name of the honest loner who had accepted the position of Banshee’s sheriff sight unseen. The recently released thief on the run from a shadowy Ukrainian gangster happened to be on-hand when Hood met his untimely end. He even threw his lot in with the lawman. It was not sufficient to save the real Hood, but it means there will be no witnesses, aside from Banshee’s sympathetic barkeep and former Cruiser weight champion Sugar Bates.
The man now masquerading as Sheriff Hood came to Banshee to confront his former lover and accomplice, now known as Carrie Hopewell, the wife of the crusading district attorney. Perhaps he will stay to take down Kai Proctor, the local slaughterhouse owner and vice kingpin, who happens to be the blacksheep son of an Amish patriarch. Meanwhile, the ominous Rabbit’s henchmen are hot on the trail of the ostensive Hood and his reluctant transvestite hacker accomplice, Job. (Who knew Harry Angstrom was a super-villain?) Potentially, Hood could find himself juggling two nemesis figures, while ambiguously pursuing his ex-lover and bedding all of Banshee’s willing party girls.
As set-ups go, Banshee’s looks solid enough to sustain at least a full season. The first episode origin-smackdown is particularly well executed, although it might represent some rather unfortunate product placement for A1 steak sauce. To judge by the first two installments, there should be plenty of Walking Tall style action. Cinemax’s horny teenager demographic will also appreciate Ivana Milicevic’s nude scenes as the presumed Hopewell.
Certainly looking the part, Milicevic does a nice job in the early going serving as both femme fatale and soccer mom. In the lead, Anthony Starr is surprisingly manly and hardnosed, especially by Hollywood’s standards. He could become a go to guy for an industry suffering from a masculinity deficit. Although Ulrich Thomsen has played plenty of heavies in his American outings, he seems to enjoy Proctor more. The Amish angle probably helps. Ben Cross is certainly on familiar territory as the malevolent Rabbit, but Hoon Lee’s shticky Job trades on some tired stereotypes.
Banshee clearly has enough violence and mature stuff to keep it going for a while, but the underlying premise also shows considerable promise. It certainly has the right tone to appeal to fans of Cinemax’s breakout hit, Strike Back! Effectively cast and nicely paced by directors Greg Yaitanes (episode 1) and S.J. Clarkson (episode 2) Banshee is worth taking a shot on. It premieres this Friday night (1/11) on Cinemax.
* Ivana can talk all she wants about her desire to finally sex it up but she must been desperate to ace the audition. Just take a look at her film resume in recent years and it's indicative of all actresses over 35. The path to career invisibility at that age is paved with lack of viable roles and slowly being pushed into the side-road of irrelevance.
Unless you are of Meryl Streep caliber, nudity dodging is a waste of time because if you're planning a long stay in the biz better drop the nudity clause crap. The fear of being pigeon-holed if you get naked on-cam only comes into play if you're talented and can actually act. Even that is a false theory long perpuated by nudity dodgers. Anne Hathaway is the major example. Another is self-awareness. Most so-called 'actresses' knows they can't act their way out of a paper bag and they are only hired to pretty up the proceedings. They see nudity as pointless when they're in their early 20's before it all comes crashing down and home quickly enough. That's why new generation of actors are firmly advised to be open-minded by reps/agents because if you play it prude, the role will go to a foreign talent. No more so when original content by premium cable is now on the rapid rise.
Unless you are of Meryl Streep caliber, nudity dodging is a waste of time because if you're planning a long stay in the biz better drop the nudity clause crap. The fear of being pigeon-holed if you get naked on-cam only comes into play if you're talented and can actually act. Even that is a false theory long perpuated by nudity dodgers. Anne Hathaway is the major example. Another is self-awareness. Most so-called 'actresses' knows they can't act their way out of a paper bag and they are only hired to pretty up the proceedings. They see nudity as pointless when they're in their early 20's before it all comes crashing down and home quickly enough. That's why new generation of actors are firmly advised to be open-minded by reps/agents because if you play it prude, the role will go to a foreign talent. No more so when original content by premium cable is now on the rapid rise.
Let's get back to Ivana. Smoldering through performance isn't acting and nobody does it better than Ivana. Is it any wonder she was reduced to co-star status quickly and never bothered to elevate herself into at least B-list status because she was playing it safe. Just look at Jessica Marais - another smoulderer who knows what she is capable of to make it big (career and financially) - and went for it without hesitation.
Now after nearly 20-years of rather flat career, Ivana finally came to her senses. It will be a pleasure to watch her still natural naked body. Here to Banshee being renewed for second season.
Now after nearly 20-years of rather flat career, Ivana finally came to her senses. It will be a pleasure to watch her still natural naked body. Here to Banshee being renewed for second season.
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Will 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Really Submit To NC-17 Rating?
Following remarks from screenwriter Kelly Marcel, box-office experts tell MTV News that studio will likely angle for R rating.
By Amy Wilkinson (@AmyMWilk)
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times (excerpted in The Hollywood Reporter), Marcel revealed that she is "100 percent going there" with the big-screen adaptation of E L James' best-selling "Fifty Shades of Grey," claiming the film will receive an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.
A rep for Universal — the studio producing "Fifty Shades" — quickly responded, telling THR, "A screenplay has not yet been written, a rating has not been designated, and we have no further comment."
James' tale of billionaire businessman Christian Grey and his inexperienced paramour Anastasia Steele is an undeniably saucy one, with plenty of explicit sex scenes and references to all manner of kinkery. Fans have long wondered how a cinematic version could possibly garner an R rating without erasing the bulk of erotic content that, let's be honest, makes "Fifty Shades" what it is. So while Marcel's NC-17 claims may have buoyed hopes for a thoroughly faithful adaptation, box-office experts told MTV News that an R rating is more likely (and financially viable).
"The source material for 'Fifty Shades' was always destined to be a film that toed the NC-17 line," Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Jeff Bock explained. "That said, there has never been a quantifiable success story for a film with an NC-17 rating, which is why you very rarely see one released anymore."
To wit, the highest-grossing NC-17 film of all time, according to Box Office Mojo, is "Showgirls," which since its release in 1995 has earned a little more than $20 million. In contrast, 2011's much-talked-about "Shame," starring Michael Fassbender, has grossed just under $4 million.
Historically, theater owners have been hesitant to show NC-17-rated films, making them a gamble for risk-averse studios. However, BoxOffice.com editor Phil Contrino said that stigma is mostly imagined nowadays.
"I highly doubt that the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' movie will be released in theaters with an NC-17 rating," he said. "Even though the idea that major theater chains won't play NC-17 films is largely a myth, there's still a feeling that distributors lose out financially by choosing NC-17 over R. There's a lot of money to be made here and an R rating is a safer bet from a financial standpoint."
All of this doesn't mean, however, that Marcel won't deliver an NC-17-worthy script to Universal.
"My guess is they'll make something that needs to be trimmed to get an R rating and then we'll see an 'unrated version' on Blu-ray, which will help make the home market more lucrative after what's sure to be an impressive theatrical run," Contrino continued.
Bock agreed: "Odds are they may shoot an NC-17 script that will eventually be toned down in the editing process. Snip, snip...cut, cut."
Regardless of whether "Fifty Shades of Grey" submits to an NC-17 rating or a less-financially-risky R, Box Office Guru editor Gitesh Pandya is confident the film will dominate the box office.
"Since so few films with [an NC-17] rating are ever released, and they are mostly small artsy pictures, 'Fifty Shades of Grey' would be a blockbuster for that rating since most of the audience is of age anyway," he said. "But buzz about its rating this early in the process makes for some nice publicity. It should do gangbusters no matter what the rating is. The only thing that could make it go limp at the box office is if they fail to make a good movie."
So are we headed for our first NC-17 blockbuster? We'll know for sure laters, baby.
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Allison Williams Of 'Girls' Talks Season 2, Nudity, Lena Dunham And More
Because of the way it's shot. The fact there's no glossy lighting. There aren't candles burning. The funniest thing is there actually is a sex scene with Charlie and I in episode two of Season 1 where there are candles burning. It's the closest thing we have to one of those typical scenes in the show, and it's terrible. The whole point of the scene is that it's terrible. The sex and nudity are all supposed to remind you of the worst moments you've had sexually, or the most uncomfortable stories you've heard, and that's what people are reacting to. It's not the naked body. We see those our whole lives. The newness is in the way the nudity is depicted, floating in and out of an episode like it's nothing. It's not the big crescendo of a film or the centerpiece of the scene. It's just sort of an asterisk.
Does the way the sex scenes are filmed on "Girls" make you more comfortable with the idea of being naked on screen?
It makes me feel like I'm part of a show that's aiming to portray a very real reckoning of what's going on. It wouldn't be the full picture if viewers weren't seeing the characters in in these private moments, and that's something we all signed up for at the beginning. And sometimes it means shooting a pretty challenging scene, but it's all for the good of the show. I trust Lena. We look at what she does and just follow.
More here
* Like I posted before, it's baby-steps for Allison season by season when it comes to nudity. She reportedly will do her first real nudity in Season 3 when Girls is predictably renewed soon.
Again I must reiterate she is no nudity dodger. Allison like most women is wrecked with body-image issues and that's a major barrier to overcome. She lost tremendous amount of weight just to do her nude scenes this upcoming season. Allison knew when she accepted the role there was nudity involved but Lena the weak show-runner was kind enough to allow much leeway in pilot season. It's understandable considering she is a newcomer and needs time to bed in.
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* The new Americana is here to stay..........do you mind if your fiancee and her friends - drunk and having the time of their life - decides there was nothing wrong in touching a stranger's cock or even sucking on one? Sounds implausible but times have changed and we all know the word 'restraint' don't exist in the vocabulary when chicks are really boozed out of their mind.
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27-years old Brazillian model Jeisa Chiminazzo for La Perla Lingerie 2013
More here and HQ links is here
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But Norm Foster's Bedroom Stories is anything but a romp in the sack.
The play is one of three selections from Theatre Cambrian's Dinner Theatre Festival, and from what Mark Mannisto refers to as the theatre troop's annual comedic buffet offering.
Mannisto directs two plays by popular Canadian playwright Norm Foster: Bedtime Stories and Here on the Flight Path.
"When choosing the shows I want to direct, it's about quality material," said Mannisto. "Norm Foster has certainly proved himself time and time again with his productions. The more we can support homegrown theatre, the better. Norm Foster is Canada's best."
Here on the Flight Path is a comedy in what Gary Smith of the Hamilton Spectator describes as a "hilarious look at a screwed-up nerd's relationship with three attractive women."
Bedroom Stories is a charming play comprised of six different scenes with a bed as the primary focus, said Mannisto.
"Automatically when people think of a bed they think of the sexy bedroom scene. And there is some of that, but the bed touches on so many levels."
One particular scene is about a woman who visits a man on his deathbed, someone whom she feels she hurt years ago. Another scene is about a shock radio jock, a Howard Stern-type of character, who pays an elderly couple to have sex live on the air.
"The bed is almost the main character," said Mannisto.
The play features 15 characters, and while five actors can realistically play those characters, Mannisto choose to have each character represented by one actor.
"It gives Theatre Cambrian the opportunity to involve more people on stage than we have for any of our past dinner theatre productions," he said.
"Usually, we tend to choose productions that have four or five actors max. But being able to choose 15 different actors is a treat. We chose to get more of the community involved."
Amazing Gracie is the story of a widow and widower who find themselves "shacked up." Adam and Eve arrive to help; Eve is working with the masculine to make him more compliant, while Adam is working with the feminine to make her more assertive.
"There's going to be something for everyone, regardless if you come to one or three shows," said Mannisto. "We have three Canadian plays that we are producing and each one is completely different from the next. It's also going to give us the opportunity to showcase the talent Sudbury has. And that's what we're all about. Theatre Cambrian is here to promote and foster the creativity of our community."- - -
Theatre Cambrian's Dinner Theatre Festival
* Jan 11--13 and Jan. 18--20;
* Plays: Amazing Gracie, Bedtime Stories, Here on the Flight Path;
* Single ticket: $55; festival pass: $135. Cost includes a catered meal. Call Theatre Cambrian at 705-524-7317 for tickets.
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27-years old Brazillian model Jeisa Chiminazzo for La Perla Lingerie 2013
More here and HQ links is here
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A wake-up comedy call
Thursday, January 10, 2013
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| Shawn McLaren, left, Ray Landry and Helen Landry are featured in the Theatre Cambrian production of Bedtime Stories, which is part of Theatre Cambrian's dinner theatre festival. The festival runs January 11-13 and January 18-20. |
The bedroom scene of any drama makes us think of hanky-panky and other horseplay.
But Norm Foster's Bedroom Stories is anything but a romp in the sack.
The play is one of three selections from Theatre Cambrian's Dinner Theatre Festival, and from what Mark Mannisto refers to as the theatre troop's annual comedic buffet offering.
Mannisto directs two plays by popular Canadian playwright Norm Foster: Bedtime Stories and Here on the Flight Path.
"When choosing the shows I want to direct, it's about quality material," said Mannisto. "Norm Foster has certainly proved himself time and time again with his productions. The more we can support homegrown theatre, the better. Norm Foster is Canada's best."
Here on the Flight Path is a comedy in what Gary Smith of the Hamilton Spectator describes as a "hilarious look at a screwed-up nerd's relationship with three attractive women."
Bedroom Stories is a charming play comprised of six different scenes with a bed as the primary focus, said Mannisto.
"Automatically when people think of a bed they think of the sexy bedroom scene. And there is some of that, but the bed touches on so many levels."
One particular scene is about a woman who visits a man on his deathbed, someone whom she feels she hurt years ago. Another scene is about a shock radio jock, a Howard Stern-type of character, who pays an elderly couple to have sex live on the air.
"The bed is almost the main character," said Mannisto.
The play features 15 characters, and while five actors can realistically play those characters, Mannisto choose to have each character represented by one actor.
"It gives Theatre Cambrian the opportunity to involve more people on stage than we have for any of our past dinner theatre productions," he said.
"Usually, we tend to choose productions that have four or five actors max. But being able to choose 15 different actors is a treat. We chose to get more of the community involved."
Amazing Gracie is the story of a widow and widower who find themselves "shacked up." Adam and Eve arrive to help; Eve is working with the masculine to make him more compliant, while Adam is working with the feminine to make her more assertive.
"There's going to be something for everyone, regardless if you come to one or three shows," said Mannisto. "We have three Canadian plays that we are producing and each one is completely different from the next. It's also going to give us the opportunity to showcase the talent Sudbury has. And that's what we're all about. Theatre Cambrian is here to promote and foster the creativity of our community."- - -
Theatre Cambrian's Dinner Theatre Festival
* Jan 11--13 and Jan. 18--20;
* Plays: Amazing Gracie, Bedtime Stories, Here on the Flight Path;
* Single ticket: $55; festival pass: $135. Cost includes a catered meal. Call Theatre Cambrian at 705-524-7317 for tickets.
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‘Tragic’ Drop in L.A.’s TV Production in 2012
By Sean J. Miller
Last year saw a dramatic drop in some genres of television production in Los Angeles, according to FilmL.A., a not-for-profit that coordinates permitting for local productions.
Runaway production is an increasing concern for local actors and crew who have based in California only to find jobs shifting abroad and to other parts of the country.
Most troubling for the Southern California entertainment industry, according to the group, was the “tragic” drop in the production of TV dramas, which was down 20 percent. Another sharp decline was also seen in the TV reality category, which was down 11.8 percent, according to FilmL.A.’s annual report released Tuesday.
Overall, TV production was down 3.4 percent for the year, although fourth quarter TV totals were up 11.9 percent because of an increase in on-location TV sitcom production.
“We know that part of the decline in our TV Drama figures stems from producers’ desire to cut costs by filming more on studio back-lots and soundstages,” Paul Audley, FilmL.A.’s president, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, last year we also saw a record number of new TV drama series shot out of state, resulting in negative economic consequences.
There were a couple bright spots for the industry. For instance, the commercials category increased 14.1 percent for the year and on-location feature production increased 3.7 percent for 2012—the most film production the Los Angeles area has seen in four years. Overall on-location production was up 4.7 percent from the previous year, 46,254 permitted production days (PPD) in 2012 versus 45,484 in 2011. Still, that figure remains below levels seen prior to 2009.
That was the year the state introduced the California Film and Television Tax Credit program, the $100-million-a-year incentive program that was recently extended by lawmakers to July 2017. FilmL.A. noted it has been successful in luring projects to the Los Angeles region. State-qualified feature projects, which include the forthcoming “Gangster Squad” and “The Hive” among others, generated 347 PPD last year: 5.9 percent of the annual total. Other projects driving a significant amount of Los Angeles-area feature activity in 2012 included “Bad Words” and J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek into Darkness.”
Meanwhile, state-qualified television projects, which include MTV’s “Teen Wolf” and TNT”s “Rizzoli and Isles,” generated 276 PPD last year, just 1.6 percent of the annual total.
Audley said the state needs to continue to search for ways to incentivize California-based production.
“Last year saw our industry rocked by dramatic changes in the local production landscape,” Audley stated. “If we seek a more secure future for filming in Los Angeles, we must continue to innovate and expand upon the programs proven to attract new projects to California.”
Overall, TV production was down 3.4 percent for the year, although fourth quarter TV totals were up 11.9 percent because of an increase in on-location TV sitcom production.
“We know that part of the decline in our TV Drama figures stems from producers’ desire to cut costs by filming more on studio back-lots and soundstages,” Paul Audley, FilmL.A.’s president, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, last year we also saw a record number of new TV drama series shot out of state, resulting in negative economic consequences.
There were a couple bright spots for the industry. For instance, the commercials category increased 14.1 percent for the year and on-location feature production increased 3.7 percent for 2012—the most film production the Los Angeles area has seen in four years. Overall on-location production was up 4.7 percent from the previous year, 46,254 permitted production days (PPD) in 2012 versus 45,484 in 2011. Still, that figure remains below levels seen prior to 2009.
That was the year the state introduced the California Film and Television Tax Credit program, the $100-million-a-year incentive program that was recently extended by lawmakers to July 2017. FilmL.A. noted it has been successful in luring projects to the Los Angeles region. State-qualified feature projects, which include the forthcoming “Gangster Squad” and “The Hive” among others, generated 347 PPD last year: 5.9 percent of the annual total. Other projects driving a significant amount of Los Angeles-area feature activity in 2012 included “Bad Words” and J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek into Darkness.”
Meanwhile, state-qualified television projects, which include MTV’s “Teen Wolf” and TNT”s “Rizzoli and Isles,” generated 276 PPD last year, just 1.6 percent of the annual total.
Audley said the state needs to continue to search for ways to incentivize California-based production.
“Last year saw our industry rocked by dramatic changes in the local production landscape,” Audley stated. “If we seek a more secure future for filming in Los Angeles, we must continue to innovate and expand upon the programs proven to attract new projects to California.”
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Killing Love is a story about a couple in love. He is a jealous man with a short fuse while she is beautiful and a little crazy. Together they are like modern day Bonnie and Clyde... a dangerous combination. They are bound to repeat their mistakes again unless one of them wakes up from this crazy killing love they're in.
Watch this film in 1080p crispiness here: youtube.com/watch?v=8N-FPMIm010Written and Directed by Tom Antos: youtube.com/user/polcan99Starring:
Dan Cristofori imdb.com/name/nm3346249/
Diana Schoutsen facebook.com/pages/Diana-Schoutsen/255521444487972
Robert Nolan robertnolan.info/
Music by Christopher Charles youtube.com/user/ChristopherCharles
A girl's dream date may be a guy's nightmare. In the classic he said, she said comedy form, two women and their men recount the unexpected pleasures and pain of the night before.
Exclusive "Dinner Date - Short Film School DVD" with over 2 hours of filmmaking tutorials is here: tlapro.com/ShortFilmSchoolDVD.aspxGot a question for me? Or want more tutorials then follow me on facebook: facebook.com/TomAntosFilms
or twitter twitter.com/tomantos
Writtern and Directed by: Tom Antos youtube.com/user/polcan99
Starring:
Jeff Sinasac: jeffsinasac.com/
Tonya Dodds: tonyadodds.com/
Keith Cooper: youtube.com/user/NocturnalComedy
April Morgan: youtube.com/user/NocturnalComedy
Music By: Christopher Charles: youtube.com/user/ChristopherCharles
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Sundance 2013 is on the horizon, and Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph gives you a crash course in the top movies at the film festival!
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A longtime still photographer, this is my first attempt at video with a model. It was taken about a year ago in my Toledo, OH studio using a DV camcorder. I have since upgraded to an HD-DSLR which I have only tinkered with to this point. As I explained to a colleague, it's nice to feel I am learning something again instead of sleepwalking when I pick up a camera. A lot to learn, but that's the whole idea.
Amanda and I can both be found on Model Mayhem. Her MM site is here, mine is here.
Amanda and I can both be found on Model Mayhem. Her MM site is here, mine is here.
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Welcome To The Animated GIF Premiere Of Banshee
Banshee is no ordinary town, so the premiere of Banshee on Cinemax couldn't be an ordinary premiere. We've taken the entire hour-long first episode, and made it into animated GIFs for you to watch here, now, before the premiere on Friday at 10PM on Cinemax. All the action, all the intrigue, the whole story, everything… in animated GIFs. Enjoy.
Click here for rest of the GIFs
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Lindsay Lohan in 'The Canyons'
A first look at "The Canyons," starring Lindsay Lohan and the porn star James Deen.
A fantastic detailed article about LiLo and the making of the movie.
Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie
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| On the set of "The Canyons" in Los Angeles last summer: Amanda Brooks, Lindsay Lohan and Paul Schrader. |
By STEPHEN RODRICK
Lohan sits down, smiles and skips the small talk.
“Hi, how are you? I won’t play Cynthia. I want to play Tara, the lead.” Braxton Pope and Paul Schrader nod happily. They’d been tipped off by her agent that this was how it was going to go. They tell her that sounds like a great idea.
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| Paul Schrader and Lindsay Lohan on the set of "The Canyons." |
Schrader thinks she’s perfect for the role. Not everyone agrees. Schrader wrote “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver” and has directed 17 films. Still, some fear Lohan will end him. There have been house arrests, car crashes and ingested white powders. His own daughter begs him not to use her. A casting-director friend stops their conversation whenever he mentions her name. And then there’s the film’s explicit subject matter. Full nudity and lots of sex. Definitely NC-17. His wife, the actress Mary Beth Hurt, didn’t even finish the script, dismissing it as pornography after 50 pages. She couldn’t understand why he wanted it so badly.
But Schrader was running out of chances. His last major opportunity was about a decade ago, when he was picked to direct a reboot of “The Exorcist.” He told an interviewer, “If I don’t completely screw that up, it might be possible for me to end my career standing on my own feet rather than groveling for coins.” A few months later, he was replaced by the blockbuster director Renny Harlin, who reshot the film. Renny Harlin! Schrader is now 65 and still begging for coins.
Pope, dressed in a checked shirt and skinny tie, looks like a producer. His fingers are constantly, frantically, scanning his iPhone. In the fall of 2011, he connected Schrader with Bret Easton Ellis, whose grisly satires brought him early notoriety and who had lately turned to screenwriting. The three were set to make “Bait,” a shark thriller, based on a screenplay Ellis wrote, but the Spanish financing vaporized. Schrader suggested they do something on the cheap that didn’t look cheap. Pope worked his connections with Lohan’s agent, and that’s why she is sitting here on this spring day.
Ellis is noticeably absent, holed up less than a mile away waging one of his frequent Twitter wars. (He has mounted social-media jihads against David Foster Wallace, J. D. Salinger and Kathryn Bigelow.) He thinks Lohan is wrong for the part, especially if she’s cast opposite the porn star he courted online. But he spent all his capital getting his man cast. Also, his condo is under water. Ellis will give in.
Schrader, Pope and Lohan talk details. The film, “The Canyons,” has a microbudget, maybe $250,000. Ellis, Pope and Schrader are putting up $30,000 apiece. The rest will be raised on Kickstarter with promises of cameos, script reviews and — for the low, low price of $10,000 — the money clip that Robert DeNiro gave Schrader on the set of “Taxi Driver.” There will be no studio looking over their shoulders offering idiot notes. The actress will get $100 a day and an equal share of the profits, but no vote in decision-making. This last clause is nonnegotiable.
Schrader goes over some ground rules; no trailers on set and one contractually obligated, four-way sex scene. Oh, another thing, Schrader adds: he will not try to sleep with her. This was probably a more relevant point in 1982, but no matter. Lohan stands up and says goodbye, telling everyone how excited she is to be working with them. She leaves the restaurant, followed by her mother and the mysterious man with the presents.
Back at the table, Pope straightens his tie and exhales. He turns to Schrader and asks a simple question.
“What do you think?”
Schrader knows he should be terrified, but he’s as giddy as the son of dour Calvinists can be.
“I think this is going to work.”
But Schrader was running out of chances. His last major opportunity was about a decade ago, when he was picked to direct a reboot of “The Exorcist.” He told an interviewer, “If I don’t completely screw that up, it might be possible for me to end my career standing on my own feet rather than groveling for coins.” A few months later, he was replaced by the blockbuster director Renny Harlin, who reshot the film. Renny Harlin! Schrader is now 65 and still begging for coins.
Pope, dressed in a checked shirt and skinny tie, looks like a producer. His fingers are constantly, frantically, scanning his iPhone. In the fall of 2011, he connected Schrader with Bret Easton Ellis, whose grisly satires brought him early notoriety and who had lately turned to screenwriting. The three were set to make “Bait,” a shark thriller, based on a screenplay Ellis wrote, but the Spanish financing vaporized. Schrader suggested they do something on the cheap that didn’t look cheap. Pope worked his connections with Lohan’s agent, and that’s why she is sitting here on this spring day.
Ellis is noticeably absent, holed up less than a mile away waging one of his frequent Twitter wars. (He has mounted social-media jihads against David Foster Wallace, J. D. Salinger and Kathryn Bigelow.) He thinks Lohan is wrong for the part, especially if she’s cast opposite the porn star he courted online. But he spent all his capital getting his man cast. Also, his condo is under water. Ellis will give in.
Schrader, Pope and Lohan talk details. The film, “The Canyons,” has a microbudget, maybe $250,000. Ellis, Pope and Schrader are putting up $30,000 apiece. The rest will be raised on Kickstarter with promises of cameos, script reviews and — for the low, low price of $10,000 — the money clip that Robert DeNiro gave Schrader on the set of “Taxi Driver.” There will be no studio looking over their shoulders offering idiot notes. The actress will get $100 a day and an equal share of the profits, but no vote in decision-making. This last clause is nonnegotiable.
Schrader goes over some ground rules; no trailers on set and one contractually obligated, four-way sex scene. Oh, another thing, Schrader adds: he will not try to sleep with her. This was probably a more relevant point in 1982, but no matter. Lohan stands up and says goodbye, telling everyone how excited she is to be working with them. She leaves the restaurant, followed by her mother and the mysterious man with the presents.
Back at the table, Pope straightens his tie and exhales. He turns to Schrader and asks a simple question.
“What do you think?”
Schrader knows he should be terrified, but he’s as giddy as the son of dour Calvinists can be.
“I think this is going to work.”
If Schrader wasn’t worried about Lohan’s reputation, it might be because he is familiar with dysfunction. As a boy, his mother showed him what hell felt like by shoving a needle into his thumb. His father lobbied to prevent “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a film his son wrote, from playing in their hometown, Grand Rapids, Mich. After his father died, Schrader found that he owned VHS tapes of all of his films, but none of them had been opened. In his 20s, Schrader slept with a gun under his pillow because he could fall asleep only if he knew there was a way out. Now he never travels without thousands of dollars in the currency of half a dozen countries.
Schrader is convinced he can manage Lohan. He thinks he has seen it all. Thirty years ago, he directed an alcoholic George C. Scott in “Hardcore.” One day, Scott wouldn’t come out of his trailer. He called Schrader into his booze-soaked sanctuary.
“You’re a great screenwriter but the world’s worst goddamned director,” Scott said. “Promise me you’ll never direct another movie, and I’ll come out.” Schrader dropped to his knees and promised. A few weeks later, Scott read in the trades that Schrader was going to direct “American Gigolo.” Next time he saw Schrader, he bellowed, “You’re a liar.”
It was true, Schrader had broken his promise, but this was Hollywood. Manipulating someone like Scott — or Lohan — was his vocation. Still, it wouldn’t be easy. At their second meeting, Lohan complained to Schrader about a biopic she was shooting for Lifetime, in which she played Elizabeth Taylor, one of her role models. She proclaimed the director a jerk, her co-star a nightmare and the crew unfriendly. On it went. Schrader listened for a while. He looked stricken. He softly tapped his balding head on the table. Lohan asked him what was the matter.
“That’s going to be me in two months. You’re going to turn on me.”
The actress touched his arm softly. “C’mon, Paul. That won’t happen.”
He chose to believe her. That summer, he developed a pet line to steel the less brave.
“We don’t have to save her,” Schrader said. “We just have to get her through three weeks in July.”
A month later, Schrader would be standing naked in a Malibu bedroom, missing his dogs and trying to coax Lohan out of her robe.
Turns out three weeks can be a very long time.
I first met Schrader in 2009 while he was trying to get a combined Bollywood-Hollywood thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio made. “This is the future of filmmaking,” Schrader told me over lunch in Manhattan. “Global financing. The American market is tapped out.”
But the Indian money dried up, and DiCaprio lost interest. The film slipped away. By 2011, Schrader, who built his career on making movies about dark loners, was convinced that traditional financing for the films he liked to make was gone forever, along with the audience willing to drive five miles and pay $12 to watch them in a drafty art house. Well, the audience was still there, but they were at home. He thought his future lay in pictures that would not only play indie theaters but also be available on video-on-demand the same day. Recent movies like “Bachelorette,” with Kirsten Dunst, and “Arbitrage,” a Richard Gere thriller, made a comfortable profit that way. Schrader hoped to follow that model, but on a skimpier budget. He wrote his two partners a manifesto of sorts last January:
“The script has to be multicharactered, relationship-based, full of sharp dialogue, set in contemporary locations and have a certain outré value. . . . Cinema for the posttheatrical era. . . . We could attract interesting actors and create a profile for the film via social media. It would be something that we own.”
Like Schrader, Ellis was at a crossroads. After his early successes, “Less Than Zero” and “American Psycho,” Ellis’s books hadn’t sold as well, and tired of the novel as an art form, he moved to L.A., looking to break into movies. But nothing had gone into production recently, and he was itching to get something made. He went to work on the script while Pope strategized.
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| The screenwriter: Bret Easton Ellis. |
Ellis cranked out a first draft in six weeks. He had recently become fascinated with James Deen, a 26-year-old known as the Porn Star Next Door. Deen, whose real name is Bryan Matthew Seville, is the Jewish son of Pasadena rocket scientists — really. His 4,000 films have gained him a cult of female fans because he is well endowed and sensitive. But Ellis didn’t see Deen as harmless. He wrote the script with Deen in his head for the role of Christian, a classic Ellis sociopathic trust-funder, convinced there “was a devil behind the Jewish boy-next-door cute guy.”
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| The leading man: James Deen. |
Ellis and Deen exchanged flirty tweets as he wrote and the two met for dinner at Soho House in Los Angeles. Afterward, Ellis was even more convinced that Deen was perfect for Christian. Schrader had his doubts, concerned about trying to break bad habits learned over thousands of porn movies. Ellis countered that the other actors read the part with a certain campiness; only Deen read it with the correct malevolence. Eventually, Schrader showed tapes of the three finalists to his wife at their upstate New York home. Hurt told her husband that Deen was the one.
Around the same time, Pope reached out to Lohan. Ellis was skeptical, afraid of the melodrama Lohan would bring to the project. But Pope and Schrader reminded Ellis of what he said in an essay for The Daily Beast the previous year: “Do [Americans] really want manners? Civility? Empire courtesy? No. They want reality, no matter how crazy the celeb who brings it on has become.”
Ellis was riffing on Charlie Sheen, but it could have been Lohan. The first child of a drug-abusing, felonious stock trader and a failed dancer, Lohan survived her Long Island childhood, moved to Hollywood and became America’s newest sweetheart with winning turns in “The Parent Trap” and “Mean Girls.” She cut an album that went platinum. In 2006, she was the best thing in Robert Altman’s “Prairie Home Companion.” The future was hers to write.
Then — as the voice-over in an “E! True Hollywood Story” would put it — it all fell apart. Big-budget films need insurance in case an actress dies or becomes incapacitated and can’t go on with a role. Lohan’s misadventures made her uninsurable, her work dried up and she settled in as a generation’s snarky punch line.
But Pope thought the talent was still there. (She would make it through “Liz and Dick,” a Lifetime movie, with the paramedics having to be called only once during the shoot. This was progress.) Besides, “The Canyons” was so low-budget that they didn’t need insurance. If she disappeared, Pope, Ellis and Schrader would simply lose their stake.
Lohan helped her cause by agreeing to a screen test. You could see playing Tara wouldn’t be a stretch for her. The large green eyes that read cute a decade ago now conveyed cornered desperation. Of course, casting two known quantities blew up the anyone-can-win, D.I.Y. ethos of the project, but nobody asked for his money back.
A few months after the Chateau Marmont meeting, the cast gathered at Prettybird studios in Culver City for the first read-through of the script. At the head of the table was Schrader, with Ellis to his left. Pope sat at the far end. The actors filtered in and took their seats. There was just one missing: Lohan.
Schrader welcomed everyone and then opened with: “Lindsay said she couldn’t make it today, and I told her that was fine, but I have an actress in Paris waiting by the phone.” He paused, and the room tittered. “She’s on her way.”
Killing time, Deen kept looking at his phone. Meanwhile, Nolan Funk — a pompadoured Canadian cast to play the weak link in the film’s love triangle — scrunched his brow and read the script quietly to himself. About 20 minutes later, Lohan arrived with a tiny assistant in tow. She smiled nervously and took her seat, adjusting her floral peasant shirt, rattling her bangles.
“Hi, everybody.”
Schrader gave her an impatient paternal look and then started talking about the film. But Ellis and Funk were distracted. Across the table, Funk could see that his name had been crossed out in Lohan’s script and underneath were the names of three or four actors as possible replacements. Ellis saw that Deen’s name also had a line through it.
Lohan’s private doubts did not diminish her public enthusiasm. She had a thousand thoughts on Tara. Schrader mentioned the character was a failed actress.
“Rejection for an actress is formative.”
Lohan snorted a laugh.
“Well, it’s nothing like going to jail, I can tell you that.”
The usually poker-faced Ellis cracked a wry smile.
“Well, that’s also formative.”
Schrader mentioned that he was still trying to cast a psychiatrist, a small but pivotal role.
“I called Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe. They’re not available. So, any ideas?”
Lohan squealed and said, “How about Jared?”
Schrader nodded approvingly.
“Jared Harris?”
“No, Jared Leto.”
Pope grimaced. (Schrader eventually cast Gus Van Sant.)
Around 3, Schrader said that was enough for the day. Lohan bolted out of her chair and headed outside for a smoke. She was quite pale, her skin not on speaking terms with daylight. But she was excited to be working.
“I’ve missed this so much,” she said between puffs. Her voice was a nicotine-soaked rasp. “I’m in a good place now. I mean it’s Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader! It’s a dream. When it’s done, I want to go somewhere far away, maybe Africa. Uganda? But right now all I want to do is work, work.”
Lohan oozed adrenaline and chattered on with a self-lacerating sense of humor. (She owns coasters that say, “I used to worry, but now I have a pill for that.”) She talked of a recent photo shoot where she was asked to wear stripes. She shifted into her best Joan Rivers imitation.
“I said, ‘Hello, stripes after jail, so not a good idea!’ ”
A few minutes later, she said goodbye and hobbled in heels toward her rented Porsche.
Then she disappeared for a few days.
Filming was scheduled to start in less than a week, so Schrader arranged for Deen and Lohan to meet him at Prettybird to map out the movie’s sex scenes. Lohan canceled the first day but promised she’d be there the next morning, a Sunday. She never showed. Schrader and Pope texted and left messages on her phone. There was no answer. Schrader thought about what he should do. Right now, he had the upper hand; there really was an actress waiting in Paris. But once they started shooting, he’d lose the power. Lohan could hold the entire production hostage. So he fired her.
He went back to his room at the Orlando Hotel in Beverly Hills and left it to Pope to deliver the bad news. Pope finally reached Lohan, telling her she was done. Lohan began to cry and begged for another chance. Pope told her that Schrader had made up his mind.
Lohan headed for the Orlando. She pounded on doors until she found Schrader’s room. As she banged on his door, she texted him manically. Schrader could hear her crying but wouldn’t let her in. He texted her instead.
“Lindsay, go home.”
The hotel manager rang up to ask if he should call the cops. Schrader told him no and sat down on his bed. Lohan stayed out in the hall sobbing for another 90 minutes before she finally left.
Eventually, the director called Pope and asked him to gather everyone at Prettybird to watch Lohan’s and the French actress’s screen tests again. Everyone agreed that Lohan was exponentially better. Schrader decided he’d give her one more chance.
Some in the production thought this was Schrader’s endgame all along: a strategy to get her back in line. That night, Pope, Lohan and Schrader met at the Churchill, a bar at the Orlando. A waiter brought them drinks — coffee for Lohan, a Manhattan for Schrader, a vodka soda for Pope. A pall settled over the table. Finally, Schrader picked up his glass.
“I need a drink!”
Lohan laughed and wiped tears from her eyes. She explained that she missed the meeting at Prettybird because she had been discussing the script with Nolan Funk until 3 a.m. and then took a sleeping pill. Schrader laid down the law: one more meltdown, and she was gone. If she thought she was unhirable now, wait until he threw her off a microbudget.
Schrader thought Lohan’s weakness wasn’t drugs — although he counseled her on the math of when to take sleep aids — but fear of being alone. She needed people and chaos around her 24/7. The idea of being by herself scared the hell out of her.
The next day, Lohan arrived relatively on time for a makeup test. She sat behind a table with a can of Sprite, looked into the camera and flashed a wholesome smile that would not have been out of place in the world’s best soda commercial. Schrader grabbed my arm and pointed at Lohan’s image.
“See? That’s why we put up with all the crap. You can shoot bad movies with actresses who are always on time. But look! The rest is just noise.”
But there was always noise. A few days later, filming started at 3 a.m. at the plush bar attached to the Chateau Marmont, which Pope had scored free. It wasn’t an easy first day. The scene was the opening six minutes of the movie, and there was too much exposition and not enough action. But Pope had another concern.
“Her makeup looks like it’s from a different movie.”
It was true; Lohan’s visage had a Kabuki quality to it. She had chosen to wear layers of mascara and catlike eye makeup with black lines pointing out toward her ears. Before the shoot, Pope showed Lohan Polaroids of her looking beautiful with minimal makeup.
“Look, our interest is in making you look great,” Pope told her. “You look beautiful with just a little makeup.”
But Lohan was trying to put her pixieish Disney days behind her and thought the Courtney Love approach made her look hip.
Pope let it go. There were only so many battles you could fight.
The trick of “The Canyons” was to make a $250,000 movie look like a $10 million movie. Fortunately, Schrader’s reputation inspired the kinds of donations someone straight out of film school was unlikely to get. One Kickstarter donor gave $10,000 to the production and another $10,000 to a designer so that Schrader could use his beautiful house in the Malibu hills for filming. It was a significant break; the house was a stately pleasure dome with giant picture windows, a stairway leading to a pool and a sweeping view to the sea.
It quickly became the most dependable player in the film after James Deen. On the first day of shooting in Malibu, Deen aw-shucked his way around the predominantly male crew. He wasn’t a big man; maybe 5-8 and 150 pounds, but they regarded him with wonder. At lunch, a crew member asked the question on everyone’s mind.
“Man, how many women have you had sex with?”
Deen just laughed and sheepishly scratched his head.
“Dude, I have no idea. Seriously.”
Deen has worked in all aspects of porn: producing, directing and acting. As a teenager, he learned to be comfortable performing for a crowd by “getting freaky” with a girl in front of his friends before moving into another room, as a way of getting comfortable with having sex in public. Once he began working, he took pride in being professional: he was never late, and his behavior was always fastidious. (He could be seen on set making sure the garbage bags were correctly hugging the trash-can lids.) But there was a certain loneliness about him. He told me that his lawyer, a bearded Gandalfian figure, was one of his best friends. On the “Canyons” set, he was the sole cast member who never had pals stop by.
Only Lohan had a visitor on that first Malibu day. It was Steve Honig, her publicist, a stubby, bald man in a denim shirt. He told Schrader having a reporter on set was unacceptable. Schrader told Honig that he understood and that if he wanted to pull Lohan from the movie, he should do so. Honig backed down. Honig and I talked for a few minutes while the crew waited for the marine layer to lift.
“I don’t want this to be all about Lindsay being late,” Honig said. “Actresses are always late. Julia Roberts is late.”
A few hours later, the production broke for lunch. Lohan announced she wanted to grab a bite somewhere on the Pacific Coast Highway. This concerned Pope and Schrader — they could monitor her only as long as they could see her — so they dispatched the co-producer, Ricky Horne Jr., to chauffeur Honig, Lohan and her assistants to wherever they wanted to go.
Horne drove them down the hill, pausing at a security gate. That’s when his passengers did a jailbreak, jumping out of his car. Honig frantically pushed buttons until the gate opened and the four of them dashed for Lohan’s assistant’s car. Horne sat, baffled for a moment, before heading back up the hill and briefing Schrader. The director was furious.
“O.K., she’s lost the privilege of leaving for lunch. She stays here.”
Lohan returned, only 15 minutes late, emerging from makeup to an angry Schrader. They spent much of the afternoon arguing about continuity.
“Lindsay, you held the cigarette up in the last take, now you have it down. Let’s do it again.”
Lohan sighed. Now that shooting had begun, she had the power.
“Sorry, Paul, I guess you’ll have to fire me again.”
By midweek, Schrader and Lohan were locked in battle. One afternoon, he shot some of the lead-up to the movie’s pivotal sex scene. Lohan wasn’t happy.
“I hope you got my triple chin on that one,” Lohan said to no one directly. “That shot was hideous.”
Later that afternoon, it was time to rehearse a fight scene in which Christian physically confronts Tara over infidelity. Schrader tried to describe to Deen how he wanted him to throw Lohan to the ground. Deen nodded and went through the scene at half-speed. (It was a constant friction point between the two actors, Deen conserving his energy and Lohan demanding full effort in rehearsals.) After a while, Schrader cut in to show Deen what he wanted, lightly moving Lohan and turning her toward the floor.
“James, you see that?”
Deen nodded, but Schrader wasn’t convinced. So he grabbed Lohan, tripped her over his left leg and body-slammed her to the floor. Lohan screamed, and the crew gasped. But she bounced up with a smile.
“That was great! Want to do it again?”
Schrader said it wouldn’t be necessary. The next morning they filmed the scene for real. Deen came to life; throwing the negligée-wearing Lohan hard to the ground and pounding his fist into a wall with such fury I wondered if he had broken his hand. Lohan lay slumped on the floor, her hands guarding her face, shoulders shaking, tears pouring down her cheeks. Between takes, she listened to Ryan Adams’s cover of “Wonderwall.” After three shots, Schrader said he was satisfied, and Lohan fumbled for a cigarette. She headed downstairs, and someone complimented her work.
“Well, I’ve got a lot of experience with that from my dad.”
She didn’t elaborate, and no one asked.
The next night, the “Canyons” crew was cut to a minimum. It was time to film the four-way. The scene comes at a crucial moment in the movie, when the usually passive Tara turns the tables on Christian and forces him out of his sexual comfort zone. Filmed incorrectly, the scene might win a Razzie. Get it right, and the rest of the film would click into place.
Pope found two porn actors to play the other participants. The woman walked through rehearsal completely naked, bragging that she refused to conform to porn’s norms and shave her pubic hair. Lohan freaked out.
“God, I so don’t need to hear about that.”
She retreated to a walk-in closet a few feet from the bed where the scene would be shot. Lohan had just fired her assistant and was now holed up with an old friend named Gavin. Schrader waited a half-hour and then went to see if Lohan was ready to shoot. Gavin explained that Lohan was uneasy working with porn stars and actually, truth be told, was uneasy working with Deen.
Schrader lost it.
“The thing that’s going to explode from this film is James Deen!”
Lohan screamed from the back of the closet.
“That’s what I’m afraid of!”
Schrader stalked away. He waited another hour. He went back to talk to Lohan again, this time as bad cop. Gavin wouldn’t let him all the way in, so he yelled through the door.
“You signed the contract. You knew this was coming!”
Another hour passed, and Lohan eventually moved to the bed but wouldn’t remove her robe. Schrader worried that the early-morning sunlight would begin streaming through the house. He thought of sending everyone home. But then he realized that there was one thing he hadn’t yet tried. He stripped off all of his clothes. Naked, he walked toward Lohan.
“Lins, I want you to be comfortable. C’mon, let’s do this.”
Lohan shrieked.
“Paul!”
Pope heard the scream and ran up from downstairs. He turned a corner, and there was a naked Schrader. Pope let out a “whoa” and slowly backed out of the room.
But then a funny thing happened. Lohan dropped her robe. Schrader shouted action, and they filmed the scene in one 14-minute take. About halfway through, Lohan looked directly into the camera and flashed a dirty, demented smile at Schrader. He smiled back.
A few minutes later, Schrader yelled cut. The crew packed up. Pope went to check on Lohan. He noticed that she and Gavin had been drinking, which was understandable for a young woman shooting a sex scene with three porn stars. Quietly, Pope told Lohan that he could get her a driver to take her home. But she refused, jumped into her Porsche and headed down the dark, narrow road toward the P.C.H. They all hoped they would still have a lead actress in the morning.
The next evening, around 6 p.m., Lohan barreled back up the hill. It was the last day the production had the Malibu house, and there were still two essential scenes left. The first one was the movie’s emotional payoff: Tara leaving Christian and Christian letting her go in exchange for a lethal favor.
The scene was to be shot at “magic hour,” the hour before sunset, and as usual, Lohan was running late. It had been an endless week of switching day for night, and everyone was on edge, including Deen. He had reached his limit with Lohan. During rehearsal, Deen and Schrader argued loudly over how Deen was playing the scene. After Deen remarked for the fourth time that he disagreed with how the scene unfolded, Schrader screamed at him. “James [expletive ]Deen, play the scene as I goddamn tell you.”
The two stepped outside and talked for a minute and came back in with sheepish grins. (Later Deen told me, “We yelled at each other because we couldn’t yell at the person we both wanted to yell at.”) Lohan shook her head disapprovingly at Deen.
“That’s unprofessional to treat your director like that. Just very disrespectful.”
The light faded while Lohan gave a running commentary on how the scene should be played, which happened to be the exact opposite of what Schrader wanted. She finally stopped talking and turned to the director.
“Paul, how do you want to play this?”
Schrader sighed.
“I was hoping to direct the scene, but it’s apparent that you’re not going to let me. Let’s skip it. It’s too late, the light is lost.”
Pope rushed in and put his arm on Schrader’s shoulder.
“Let’s give it a shot.”
Miraculously, the cameras rolled, and all the tension, all the ego, all the incoherence exploded into the film’s most riveting scene: Deen, cold and evil; Lohan, vulnerable and afraid.
All that remained was to get a close-up of Deen touching Lohan’s face with a blood-streaked finger. Only half of Lohan’s face would be in the shot. Most actresses would pop in some Visine to well their eyes with tears and be done with it. Instead, Lohan went back to her room, and everyone waited.
I was standing by her door, and soon I could hear her crying. It began quietly, almost a whimper, but rose to a guttural howl. It was the sobbing of a child lost in the woods.
She came out of her room, and I watched the shot on a monitor. Now, without the garish makeup, Lohan looked sadly beautiful, and it was easy to see why men like Schrader were willing to put their lives in her hands. The camera rolled, and Deen moved in slowly to touch her face. Then Schrader cursed.
“That blood looks completely fake. It’s supposed to look hours old, and it looks fresh. We’ll have to fix it in post. We’re done.”
After dinner, Lohan emerged changed — wobbly and happy, a playful smile on her face. Schrader tried to talk her through the next scene — a confrontation with Christian over his possibly criminal behavior — but she kept stumbling and giggling, missing her mark by a wide margin. Schrader told everyone to take 15 minutes. He turned to me and shrugged. “If she wants to treat this like ‘The Real Housewives’ of Beverly Hills, I’ll shoot it like ‘The Real Housewives.’ ”
Schrader told the crew they’d shoot the rest of the scene with hand-held cameras. That way, wherever Lohan was standing would be her mark. As equipment was reset, Lohan retreated to the patio for a smoke. She still had her mike on, so anyone wearing headphones could hear her.
“I’ve got one assistant passed out at my house and the other one in the Palisades saying he wants to hang himself. Life’s great.”
She exhaled, stubbed out her cigarette and came back inside. Schrader shot the scene for another hour, cursing under his breath as Lohan eye-rolled him from the staircase.
Lohan asked for a quick makeup break and retreated to her room. Schrader popped in for a word and then came out with a mischievous look on his face.
“Do you know that iPhone app that makes explosions?”
He held up the phone and showed me some footage he’d just shot of Lohan having her makeup redone. Then he pushed a button, and a Bruckheimer-quality explosion blew his star into a million tiny pieces.
Schrader smiled for the first time all night. He started talking about “The Misfits,” a 1961 film written by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston. The film featured the final performances of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. The shoot was torturous, 50 days morphing into 90, with Monroe spending a week in the hospital during filming.
“We’re making ‘The Misfits’ on a microbudget,” Schrader joked. He scratched his head and arched his eyebrows. “But here’s the thing: ‘The Misfits’ is actually a great film.”
Schrader was getting cocky. For all his disputes with Lohan, filming was on schedule; Lohan hadn’t missed any days.
“We’re getting close to the point where if she disappeared, we still have a movie,” Schrader told me one weekend midshoot. “Just one more full day, and we’re good.”
That’s when things started to get really weird. Lady Gaga was now staying at the Chateau, and that wasn’t great news for “The Canyons.” Lohan missed her morning call, and then she left the shoot for lunch with friends, running up a $600 tab on sushi, sake and vodka.
“I don’t think she gets it,” Pope said. “Six hundred dollars is huge on this movie. That’s six guys’ pay for the day.”
The next morning, Lohan was scheduled to shoot at Café Med, a West Hollywood restaurant. But when I arrived, Pope was on the verge of panic.
“Lindsay was out with Lady Gaga till 5:30 a.m. Her call was 6 a.m.”
By 9 a.m., Lohan was lying down in a Café Med booth with her hands over her eyes shading them from imaginary sunlight. The production had the restaurant only until 11. Schrader paced, breathing heavily.
A doctor arrived and took Lohan’s blood pressure. He walked over to Pope and Schrader. His diagnosis: An inner-ear infection. She was done for the day. Schrader didn’t buy it.
“That’s her doctor, he’ll say whatever she wants. I shot one day from a stretcher. She could do it, but she doesn’t want to.”
Pope and Schrader huddled with the production crew and thought of scenes they could shoot that day as a substitute. “What do we have left for James?” Schrader asked
There was awkward silence before a producer chimed in.
“Uh, I was driving by Burbank airport yesterday and I saw James pulling into the airport.”
A call was placed. Deen admitted he was not in Los Angeles.
“Goddamn it,” Schrader said. “He agreed not to shoot porn during the shoot. Now he’s out of town making porn. I told him things could change; he had to stay in town. Now a whole day is wasted.”
The crew moved on to other scenes while Lohan recuperated from the Lady Gaga flu. The stress of the shoot was wearing on everyone; the crew hadn’t been paid in a week. Pope, hoping to buck up morale, suggested raffling off two Samsung tablets used in the film. Schrader — whom the crew nicknamed the dyspeptic Lorax — wasn’t onboard.
“I don’t have a tablet. I’d like one of them.”
The next morning, everyone reconvened at Café Med. Lohan was almost on time. A TMZ tour bus drove by, the passengers waving and snapping pictures. During a camera change, I talked to Lohan as she smoked a cigarette in the parking lot. It was just dawning on her that the film was almost over. She seemed genuinely heartbroken.
“I needed time to figure out all the crap in my life that I’d created for myself, essentially, and I kind of realized, What am I doing? I like doing this. I like being here. This makes me happy. There was a line in the ‘Elizabeth’ movie where she says, ‘I’m so bored, I’ve never been taught what to do when I’m not working,’ and I’m kind of figuring that out now.”
Lohan wore a floppy hat to protect her skin from the sun and halfheartedly waved to two photographers snapping from a hill 20 yards away. I reminded her that she said she wanted to go to Africa after the shoot was over. Was she still going? She shook her head; she’d changed her mind.
“I don’t want to take a while off, I want to keep working. There’s some other scripts, and I eventually want to direct, so maybe when I’m not filming, I can be directing something because I learned so much from the people that I worked with.”
I mentioned the scene at the house where she dissolved into tears. I may have said that she still had a gift and that it shouldn’t be squandered. Lohan’s eyes filled.
“I know. I’m trying. I’m really trying.”
But then she shook her head.
“I can’t cry. I’ve got makeup on.”
There was just one last shot. The film’s producers negotiated a deal with the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica for the use of a suite where they could get ready for the scene. It was going to be a tricky one; the script called for Lohan to be followed by a stalker as she shopped at the Santa Monica Promenade. The only problem was that the mall wanted $10,000 for permission to shoot, and “The Canyons” didn’t have it. So they went with a risky move: filming one of America’s most recognizable faces walking through a crowded mall with hand-held cameras.
Schrader was already scouting the location by the time Lohan arrived at the suite with her entourage. She smiled and waved to everyone and then noticed a magazine with Oliver Stone on the cover. She picked it up and ripped it into pieces, cursing. (Lohan had been considered for a role in Stone’s “Savages,” but the director eventually passed.) She then went into the bedroom, calling out, “Does anyone want a beer?” Then she popped back out.
“The minibar is empty. Now that’s interesting!”
Over at the mall, Schrader paced nervously. “We need to get three shots, and we’re not going to get a second chance.” He was worried about attracting the attention of mall security. An hour later, Lohan arrived in her black Porsche trailed by four or five paparazzi. Schrader threw up his hands and said, “That’s it.”
Lohan told him, politely, to shut up.
“Paul, we can do this.”
She climbed out of her car and turned to the photographers.
“I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll give you a good shot, but then you have to go.” Lohan turned to her good side and hiked her floor-length skirt up to show a little leg.
“O.K., five, four, three, two, one. Now you have to go.”
The photographers backed away. Lohan walked into the mall, and Schrader started shooting. But they were quickly apprehended by the matronly head of mall security.
“You have to stop.”
Lohan flashed an innocent smile.
“He’s just taking stills. I promise.”
The matron snorted.
“You were wearing the same outfit when you were filming upstairs at Sonoma Wine Garden last week. You have to stop.”
It was over. Defeated, Schrader headed back to the hotel. Lohan walked to her Porsche. Gavin was behind the wheel. She told me to get in the back. Just before we hit the security gate, a photographer jumped out of the dark. Lohan screamed at him.
“You’re a liar!”
The photographer shrugged.
“My camera jammed before.”
Lohan gave him the finger, and we pulled onto the freeway.
“I lost a bunch in traffic on the way over to Loews. Then when I got to the Loews, there were more, and it was completely different cars, it was X17 and Splash,” Lohan said, speaking rapidly. The paparazzi chase had animated her in a way I hadn’t seen before. “They were already waiting at the hotel, they were already there.”
I asked why she didn’t try a less conspicuous vehicle.
“I’ve tried everything, I would wear wigs . . . we’ve had Wranglers, old Cadillacs — I’ve tried everything.”
Lohan yelled at Gavin to make a turn, but he missed it. She sighed dramatically but didn’t seem really bothered.
“It’s just creepy. I’ve gotten people ask to pay me 25 to 30 for a shot or sometimes 50 thousand for a bathing-suit shot. I’m afraid they’d put trackers on my car, which God only knows. . . . ”
Back at the Loews, Schrader and Pope were debating what to do next. Lohan suggested shooting the scene at the Grove, a tony West Hollywood shopping center.
“Look, we can shoot at the Grove, and we can get it for free.”
Pope looked at her with confusion.
“We’ll have ‘Access Hollywood’ pay for it. They’ll film it, I’ll answer three questions about the movie and then they’ll pay for it. It’s really easy.”
Pope and Schrader were unconvinced. But Lohan was insistent as she left the room. “They’ll do it. You just have to know how to work it.”
A few days later, Schrader and Pope, having decided on a more conventional approach, filmed Lohan at the Century City Mall, paying $3,000 for the privilege.
And just like that, the film was done. Schrader told me it would take six weeks to edit, but after three weeks I got an e-mail saying it was nearly finished. I met him in a small editing room on the top floor of the Brill Building in New York, where a half-dozen of Schrader’s friends from the indie film industry had gathered. He popped in a DVD.
The opening scene dragged endlessly. Some tricky camerawork that Schrader threw in to break up the monotony only emphasized the deadness of the scene. As Pope feared, Lohan’s makeup made her look as if she’d walked onto the set from an entirely different film.
But about 15 minutes in, something clicked. Deen had a quiet malevolence. Ellis was right: he was born to play a Bret Easton Ellis character. Lohan was equal parts vulnerable and dissolute.
Afterward, Schrader’s friends were noncommittal, but Schrader was ecstatic. We adjourned to a nearby bar. He was certain the film would get into the Sundance Film Festival. Maybe they’d recoup their investment tenfold.
“We thought this was going to be ‘My Dinner With Andre,’ but it’s a real film. We [expletive] did it.”
But this was “The Canyons,” so the ending couldn’t be that smooth. I flew back to Los Angeles and watched the film a few days later with Ellis and Pope. Ellis was the least impressed.
“The film is so languorous. It’s an hour 30, and it seems like it’s three hours long. I saw this as a pranky noirish thriller, but Schrader turned it into, well, a Schrader film.”
Pope and Ellis agreed that the opening scene wasn’t working. Pope called Schrader about reshooting it, and he was angrily dismissed.
“We could shoot it again for $15,000 in a day,” Pope said. Then he corrected himself. “Well, with Lindsay, we’d have to budget two days, but it’s doable. But he won’t do it.”
He was right. Schrader wouldn’t hear of it. And for good reason. It took two months and the quasi intervention of Lohan’s father to get Lohan to finish two hours of looping for the outdoor scenes. In the interim, Lohan punched a psychic, was accused of hitting a pedestrian in New York, was under investigation by the I.R.S. and watched her parents melt down on a very special episode of “Dr. Phil.”
Meanwhile, Ellis, Pope and Schrader battled over the film’s final cut. Pope screened a rough cut of “The Canyons” for Steven Soderbergh. Intrigued, Soderbergh offered to do an edit of the movie if he was given the footage for 72 hours.
Schrader said no.
I met him one last time in Toronto, where he was working on the film’s soundtrack with the Canadian musician Brendan Canning. He had just learned that the film had not been accepted by Sundance — the film is scheduled to be put up for sale by William Morris Endeavor later this month — and was in a fouler-than-usual mood.
“The idea of 72 hours is a joke,” Schrader said. “It would take him 72 hours to look at all the footage. And you know what Soderbergh would do if another director offered to cut his film?”
I said I didn’t. Schrader leaned back in his chair and gave me two middle fingers.
“That’s what Soderbergh would do.”
Inevitably, our conversation turned back to Lohan. He showed the film to Lindsay and her mother, Dina, in October at his New York City apartment. They were both so furious about how the camera lingered on Deen that Schrader had to move Dina to another room to get through the screening.
I asked Schrader if he regretted casting Lohan. He shook his head.
“No, she’s great in the film.”
Schrader then told me a secret. Until the screening disaster, Schrader had been in talks with Lohan to star in a remake of John Cassavetes’s “Gloria,” about a woman on the run from the mob. The director lighted up, childlike; hope triumphing over memories of being stripped naked.
“It doesn’t involve a co-star. She would be perfect for it.”
Stephen Rodrick is a contributing writer for the magazine. His memoir, ‘‘The Magical Stranger,’’ will be published in May by HarperCollins.
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'Californication' Sex Scenes: Supercut Of Hank Moody's Conquests (NSFW VIDEO)
The Huffington Post | By Oliver Noble"Californication" will enter its sixth season on Sunday (January 13 at 10:30 p.m. EST on Showtime) and viewers will once again have the opportunity to live vicariously through the genitals of David Duchnovny’s Hank Moody, a charmingly misanthropic Los Angeles writer whose sexual exploits seem more than a little close to home for the star and executive producer, who did a stint in rehab for “sexual addiction” in 2008.
"Californication" knows what its audience is there for -- a string of show biz sex fantasies with all the verisimilitude off a 16-year-old virgin’s wet dream -- and in that regard it delivers big. But Hank can't be both a philanderer and a true romantic. Season after season, the show's attempt to make Hank have his cake and eat it too leads to a never-ending narrative cycle:
1. Hank tries to win back the love of his life and mother of his daughter, Karen. During this period, he drowns his pain in alcohol, drugs and a series of mildly self-destructive misadventures involving sex with a series of beautiful women in need of emotional “rescuing.”
2. After numerous poorly executed attempts, Hank finally wins back Karen and plans to settle down into a life of committed bliss.
3. At the end of the season (or in the first episode of the next season), a past indiscretion of Hank’s comes back to haunt him, causing Karen to once again break off the relationship and set us up to repeat the saga once again.
To demonstrate the cycle of "Californication," we’ve gathered all of Moody’s on-screen conquests into one highly NSFW video, which you can watch (if you dare) below.
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Starz Adds Keyshawn Johnson Inspired Drama ‘Off Season’
Starz has given a script commitment to a new football drama based on former NFL players Keyshawn Johnson and Brian Kelly.
The hourlong “Off Season” centers on the newly promoted, youngest head coach in professional football as he handles harsh competition. Things only get more cutthroat and complex during the off-season as he navigates infighting among players, decisions on who to cut and politics with the owners. All of this is in the pursuit of putting together a team that might have a shot at a championship.
Johnson and Kelly will also serve as executive producers on the project, which comes from Jeremy Elice as part of his first-look deal at Starz.
Eric Amadio (“Shadows and Lies”) will write and executive produce, with Elice serving as an EP through his newly launched Elice Island Entertainment.
Johnson was a standout wide receiver at the University of Southern California befor playing for 11 seasons in the NFL. He is currently a football analyst for ESPN.
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* Good news indeed from Sundance........the movies highlighted in yellow all have high probability of sex/nude scenes including Kristen Bell's The Lifeguard. I don't think she will get naked but the movie should have tiny bit of nudity. I will try get confirmation but with Sundance premiere date just a week away, it's better to leave it to Mr.Skin scout to provide us with details.
Things are getting steamy in the snow-covered mountains around Park City. Sundance is embracing sex with a passion for the 29th edition of the Utah film festival founded by actor-director Robert Redford.
“It’s new territory; people exploring relationships in ways we haven’t seen onscreen before, and I think it’s going to make for an interesting festival,” said Sundance director of programming Trevor Groth.
“The volume has never been like it is this year. I think it’s a very exciting thing,” Groth added.
Sex has certainly been on the bill before at this fest, which never shies away from controversy in celebrating independent film from around the world, with an emphasis on American moviemakers. Last year, it was The Sessions(then called The Surrogate) starring Helen Hunt as a therapist who helps a disabled man (John Hawkes) fulfill his wish to lose his virginity. The film has gone on to enjoy serious awards season support.
Groth and Sundance director John Cooper chatted with the Star in advance of the festival’s Jan. 17 opening. Sundance runs until Jan. 27, closing with jOBS, the hotly anticipated biopic of Apple founder Steve Jobs with Ashton Kutcher playing the title role.
Cooper said the onscreen sex isn’t necessarily more explicit than previous years’ films; there’s just more of it. And the subject seems to be on many filmmakers’ minds, a trend that didn’t reveal itself to the programmers until they got about two-thirds of the way into selecting the 119 features from more than 12,000 submissions.
“It’s definitely more issue-based,” Cooper observed of the approach to sex on film this year. “There is a lot of talk about sexuality, in pure sexual relationships and . . . human need, but also the power of sexual relationships. What’s interesting and makes it fresh this year is that the perspective is both from male and female directors.”
In that regard, Sundance marks a milestone with this year’s festival. For the first time, half of the directors in the key U.S. dramatic film competition are women. Among them is Christina Voros, who makes her feature directing debut with the doc kink, “the true story of sex, submission,” about website kink.com.
Sundance regular James Franco is the executive producer of Kink, one of a trio of sex-related projects he has at the festival. He co-directs Interior. Leather Bar with Travis Mathewsand also co-stars in this dramatic exploration of the 40 minutes of sexually explicit film cut from the controversial 1980 movie Cruising. Al Pacino starred as a cop who goes undercover to investigate a murder among in New York City’s gay leather bar scene.
And in Lovelace, Rob Epstein’s and Jeffrey Friedman’s drama about troubled Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace, Franco plays Hugh Hefner opposite Amanda Seyfried as Lovelace. Peter Sarsgaard plays Chuck Traynor, Lovelace’s abusive ex-husband, who coerced her into making the pornographic movie that made her a household name.
“The film will be both brazen and risqué,” Seyfried toldEW.com recently. “It is very bold. In order to fully share her story, I’ve never been more ready and willing to explore these dark and emotional circumstances.”
If dark circumstances weigh in, other films at Sundance take a lighter tone, like Don Jon’s Addiction, written by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who also directs for the first time. He stars as Jon “Don Jon” Martelloa, a modern-day Don Juan who’d like to change his horndog ways. Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza and Glenne Headly also star.
As for movies that explore sex and could capture both audiences and acclaim, Groth points to Anne Fontaine’s Two Mothers, starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, and described in the Sundance program as “a gripping tale of love, lust and the power of friendship.”
Based on the Doris Lessing novel, it’s a drama about two women, friends since childhood, who fall in love with each other’s 19-year-old sons (Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville).
“I think it’s a special film,” said Groth. “The two performances (Watts and Wright) are special.
Anita: Director Freida Mock’s documentary about Anita Hill, whose assertions that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her brought the issue of workplace harassment to the fore.
Afternoon Delight: Written and directed by Jill Soloway. An aimless L.A. housewife (Kathryn Hahn) tries to rescue a stripper (Juno Temple) by taking her in as a live-in nanny.
Concussion: Directed by Stacie Passon: A 40-something married lesbian suffers a concussion that unleashes a lust for life — and other impulses.
Il Futuro (The Future): Directed by Alicia Scherson. Teenaged Bianca (Manuela Martelli) is coerced into seducing blind hermit Maciste (Rutger Hauer) as part of a teen gang’s robbery plan.
It Felt Like Love: Directed by Eliza Hittman. A 14-year-old Brooklyn girl pursues an older man.
The Lifeguard: Directed by Liz W. Garcia: A young woman (Kristen Bell) ditches her New York job to work as a lifeguard where she has an affair with a high schooler.
The Look of Love: Director Michael Winterbottom teams with Steve Coogan again (The Trip) for this true story of British adult-magazine publisher and entrepreneur Paul Raymond. Anna Friel, Imogen Poots and Tamsin Egerton co-star.
A Teacher: Directed by Hannah Fidell: A Texas high school teacher has an affair with one of her students.
Very Good Girls: Directed by Naomi Foner: Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen star as two girls who fall for the same man, with unexpected consequences.
Also from Canadians at Sundance:
S-VHS: The sequel to 2012 anthology horror movie V/H/S screens on the edgy Park City at Midnight bill. The shorts are lensed by a group of directors including Canadian filmmaker Jason Eisener.
The Meteor (Le météore): A family drama directed by François Delisle that premieres in the New Frontier program.
The Near Future (Le futur proche): A pilot struggles with unwelcome news in this short directed and produced by Sophie Goyette. It’s on the International Narrative Short Films slate.
When I Walk: A U.S.-Canada co-production documentary directed by filmmaker Jason DaSilva about living with multiple sclerosis. It screens in the Documentary Premieres program.
“We have a long, rich history of showing Canadian films and we’ve even done a Canadian spotlight,” said Sundance director John Cooper. “We were hoping to see (some) films that were not finished in time,” added director of programming Trevor Groth, noting “there’s no reason” why Canadian competition participation is lighter than last year.
“I think we’ll bounce back next year. This was a down year for it,” he said.
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* Good news indeed from Sundance........the movies highlighted in yellow all have high probability of sex/nude scenes including Kristen Bell's The Lifeguard. I don't think she will get naked but the movie should have tiny bit of nudity. I will try get confirmation but with Sundance premiere date just a week away, it's better to leave it to Mr.Skin scout to provide us with details.
Sundance 2013: Let’s talk about sex
Things are getting steamy in the snow-covered mountains around Park City. Sundance is embracing sex with a passion for the 29th edition of the Utah film festival founded by actor-director Robert Redford.
“It’s new territory; people exploring relationships in ways we haven’t seen onscreen before, and I think it’s going to make for an interesting festival,” said Sundance director of programming Trevor Groth.
“The volume has never been like it is this year. I think it’s a very exciting thing,” Groth added.
Sex has certainly been on the bill before at this fest, which never shies away from controversy in celebrating independent film from around the world, with an emphasis on American moviemakers. Last year, it was The Sessions(then called The Surrogate) starring Helen Hunt as a therapist who helps a disabled man (John Hawkes) fulfill his wish to lose his virginity. The film has gone on to enjoy serious awards season support.
Groth and Sundance director John Cooper chatted with the Star in advance of the festival’s Jan. 17 opening. Sundance runs until Jan. 27, closing with jOBS, the hotly anticipated biopic of Apple founder Steve Jobs with Ashton Kutcher playing the title role.
Cooper said the onscreen sex isn’t necessarily more explicit than previous years’ films; there’s just more of it. And the subject seems to be on many filmmakers’ minds, a trend that didn’t reveal itself to the programmers until they got about two-thirds of the way into selecting the 119 features from more than 12,000 submissions.
“It’s definitely more issue-based,” Cooper observed of the approach to sex on film this year. “There is a lot of talk about sexuality, in pure sexual relationships and . . . human need, but also the power of sexual relationships. What’s interesting and makes it fresh this year is that the perspective is both from male and female directors.”
In that regard, Sundance marks a milestone with this year’s festival. For the first time, half of the directors in the key U.S. dramatic film competition are women. Among them is Christina Voros, who makes her feature directing debut with the doc kink, “the true story of sex, submission,” about website kink.com.
Sundance regular James Franco is the executive producer of Kink, one of a trio of sex-related projects he has at the festival. He co-directs Interior. Leather Bar with Travis Mathewsand also co-stars in this dramatic exploration of the 40 minutes of sexually explicit film cut from the controversial 1980 movie Cruising. Al Pacino starred as a cop who goes undercover to investigate a murder among in New York City’s gay leather bar scene.
And in Lovelace, Rob Epstein’s and Jeffrey Friedman’s drama about troubled Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace, Franco plays Hugh Hefner opposite Amanda Seyfried as Lovelace. Peter Sarsgaard plays Chuck Traynor, Lovelace’s abusive ex-husband, who coerced her into making the pornographic movie that made her a household name.
“The film will be both brazen and risqué,” Seyfried toldEW.com recently. “It is very bold. In order to fully share her story, I’ve never been more ready and willing to explore these dark and emotional circumstances.”
If dark circumstances weigh in, other films at Sundance take a lighter tone, like Don Jon’s Addiction, written by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who also directs for the first time. He stars as Jon “Don Jon” Martelloa, a modern-day Don Juan who’d like to change his horndog ways. Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza and Glenne Headly also star.
As for movies that explore sex and could capture both audiences and acclaim, Groth points to Anne Fontaine’s Two Mothers, starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, and described in the Sundance program as “a gripping tale of love, lust and the power of friendship.”
Based on the Doris Lessing novel, it’s a drama about two women, friends since childhood, who fall in love with each other’s 19-year-old sons (Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville).
“I think it’s a special film,” said Groth. “The two performances (Watts and Wright) are special.
Among some other films at Sundance that explore sexual themes:
Anita: Director Freida Mock’s documentary about Anita Hill, whose assertions that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her brought the issue of workplace harassment to the fore.
Afternoon Delight: Written and directed by Jill Soloway. An aimless L.A. housewife (Kathryn Hahn) tries to rescue a stripper (Juno Temple) by taking her in as a live-in nanny.
Concussion: Directed by Stacie Passon: A 40-something married lesbian suffers a concussion that unleashes a lust for life — and other impulses.
Il Futuro (The Future): Directed by Alicia Scherson. Teenaged Bianca (Manuela Martelli) is coerced into seducing blind hermit Maciste (Rutger Hauer) as part of a teen gang’s robbery plan.
It Felt Like Love: Directed by Eliza Hittman. A 14-year-old Brooklyn girl pursues an older man.
The Lifeguard: Directed by Liz W. Garcia: A young woman (Kristen Bell) ditches her New York job to work as a lifeguard where she has an affair with a high schooler.
The Look of Love: Director Michael Winterbottom teams with Steve Coogan again (The Trip) for this true story of British adult-magazine publisher and entrepreneur Paul Raymond. Anna Friel, Imogen Poots and Tamsin Egerton co-star.
A Teacher: Directed by Hannah Fidell: A Texas high school teacher has an affair with one of her students.
Very Good Girls: Directed by Naomi Foner: Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen star as two girls who fall for the same man, with unexpected consequences.
Canadians at Sundance
There are five Canadian movies at Sundance 2013 — most notably Sarah Polley’s documentary debut Stories We Tell. But none of them are in competition this year, unlike 2012 when three Canadian docs were in the World Cinema non-fiction competition, where Indie Game: The Movie went on to win Best Editing.Also from Canadians at Sundance:
S-VHS: The sequel to 2012 anthology horror movie V/H/S screens on the edgy Park City at Midnight bill. The shorts are lensed by a group of directors including Canadian filmmaker Jason Eisener.
The Meteor (Le météore): A family drama directed by François Delisle that premieres in the New Frontier program.
The Near Future (Le futur proche): A pilot struggles with unwelcome news in this short directed and produced by Sophie Goyette. It’s on the International Narrative Short Films slate.
When I Walk: A U.S.-Canada co-production documentary directed by filmmaker Jason DaSilva about living with multiple sclerosis. It screens in the Documentary Premieres program.
“We have a long, rich history of showing Canadian films and we’ve even done a Canadian spotlight,” said Sundance director John Cooper. “We were hoping to see (some) films that were not finished in time,” added director of programming Trevor Groth, noting “there’s no reason” why Canadian competition participation is lighter than last year.
“I think we’ll bounce back next year. This was a down year for it,” he said.
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