Could shock-novelist Bret Easton Ellis' next detour lead him down some dark alleyways with the writer of "Taxi Driver"? If Ellis' topsy-turvy Twitter account (via ONTD) is to be believed, he's working on an "L.A. noir micro budget Paul Schrader movie." And he's got an interesting, NSFW Google search lead in mind.
Following in the footsteps of "The Girlfriend Experience," Ellis apparently has his eyes on adult film star James Deen to play "Christian or Ryan" in the new film, tweeting that Deen "has to act and be full frontal naked banging girls and guys realistically." How romantic. Skin-flick devotees know Deen as one of the more ubiquitous performers in the industry — a lanky, wiry Jewish twentysomething, he's developed a significant female fanbase drifting between plotless "gonzo" movies and big budget pornographic parodies, standing in for the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Harold Ramis ("Ghostbusters") and John Turturro ("The Big Lebowski"). Don't let IMDb fool you, as his profile is, for some reason, filled with photos of the actual James Dean.
Did this emerge from a discussion with Ellis' trainer? On January 10th, Ellis tweeted, "The person my trainer and I talked about the most last week: the career of the porn-star James Deen and what it all means." By the 19th, he had already revealed, "Before bed finishing film treatment for James Deen to star in." With his third tweet, he makes sure to emphasize "nudity and acting a must…" Is this thus far a collaboration? Or is Ellis trying to woo a male pornstar from afar? We wouldn't dare presume an answer, though Ellis and Schrader do have a working relationship, having planned to work together on the shark thriller "Bait" that was set to start shooting last winter but never came together.
As for Schrader, while his directorial efforts of late seem to have stalled out — the Bollywood backed "Xtreme City" and the long gestating vengeance pic "The Jesuit" — his action script "Recall" goes in front of cameras this year with Clive Owen in the lead. And for now, that will have to suffice.
