What has Gus van Sant been up to since he was nominated for an Oscar for Milk in 2009? Well you might have missed it, but he actually directed a whole new film, the college-aged romance that was released last fall and grossed-- no, wait for it-- $163,265 total. Van Sant is no stranger to veering between tiny indies and mainstream successes, having released the tiny Paranoid Park the same year as Milk, and the low-key demise of Restless doesn't seem to be bothering him, as he's already moving on to his next directorial effort, the "Capra-esque" drama Promised Land with John Krasinski and Matt Damon.
Production on The Promied Land has already wrapped, and apparently taking a break from the editing room, van Sant has done something else unexpected-- taken on an acting role. In a photo tweeted by writer Bret Easton Ellis, van Sant is revealed to be playing a part in The Canyons, the new film from Paul Schrader that already features a, well, unusual cast. Van Sant's role is likely just a cameo, so we can still assume the main cast is made up of constantly troubled Lindsay Lohan and James Deen, the "boy-next-door" porn star who's earned a lot of media attention lately. According to Ellis they're playing the main characters in a film about "five twenty-soemthings' quest for power, love, sex and success in 2012 Hollywood."
The photo Ellis tweeted shows van Sant sharing a scene with Deen, in what might be the first instance ever of an Oscar-nominated director acting opposite a porn star. Who knows if Canyons will turn out to be any good-- the last film written by Ellis, The Informers, was a reported disaster-- but the cast sure is keeping our interest.
