Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie

Jeff Minton for The New York Times

On the set of "The Canyons" in Los Angeles last summer: Amanda Brooks, Lindsay Lohan and Paul Schrader.

Lindsay Lohan moves through the Chateau Marmont as if she owns the place, but in a debtor-prison kind of way. Shell soon owe the hotel $46,000. Heads turn subtly as she slinks toward a table to meet a young producer and an old director. The actresss mother, Dina Lohan, sits at the next table. Mom sweeps blond hair behind her ear and tries to eavesdrop. A few tables away, a distinguished-looking middle-aged man patiently waits for the actress. He has a stack of presents for her.

Jeff Minton for The Ne! w York Times

Paul Schrader and Lindsay Lohan on the set of "The Canyons."

Lohan sits down, smiles and skips the small talk.

Hi, how are you? I wont play Cynthia. I want to play Tara, the lead. Braxton Pope and Paul Schrader nod happily. Theyd been tipped off by her agent that this was how it was going to go. They tell her that sounds like a great idea.

Schrader thinks shes 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 theres the films explicit subject matter. Full nudity and lots of sex. Definitely NC-17. His wife, the actress Mary Beth Hurt, didnt even finish the script, dismissing it as pornography after 50 pages. She couldnt 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 dont 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 connec! ted Schra! der 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 didnt look cheap. Pope worked his connections with Lohans agent, and thats 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 shes 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 t! o 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 hes as giddy as the son of dour Calvinists can be.

I think this is going to work.

Stephen Rodrick is a contributing writer for the magazine. His memoir, The Magical Stranger, will be published in May by HarperCollins.

Editor: Sheila Glaser