Kanye West Lends His Musical Abilities to Marketing ‘The Canyons’
Bret Easton Ellis bromance continues, and now Lindsay Lohan is involved
Kanye West’s bromance with writer Bret Easton Ellis continues. The Canyons — a movie written by Ellis, directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Lindsay Lohan and James Deen — opens in theaters today. The film’s original trailer uses bludgeoning brosteppy wubs as backing music and sets the film’s title in black-and-red lettering far too over-the-top to be thrilling. As Pitchfork points out, West helped score new music for a re-edited trailer.
Voilà! By the power of West, a whole lot of people who might not watch brosteppy movie trailers are now aware of a new product that they can spend money on this weekend. The trailer’s “DONDA Remix,” a reference to West’s DONDA multimedia business, was edited by Nate Brown, and West worked on the music with engineer Noah Goldstein. Ominous keyboard and 808s minimalism replaces the wubs, and flashing colors replace the original title lettering among other, more subtle changes. And with that, indie kids and fashionistas officially know it’s okay to like The Canyons.
West’s trailer re-edit might not be the ambitious spectacle you might’ve hoped for upon hearing the news that Mr. Kim Kardashian is working with Lindsay Lohan (more or less). But it’s only the latest evidence of the rapper’s admiration for Ellis. West used an American Psycho spoof to promote Yeezus, and Ellis has said the two have been meeting about a script. And while the embattled rapper may have finished Yeezus right before his deadline, he probably wasn’t wrapping up this “DONDA Remix” last night — he was too busy joining Travi$ Scott onstage.
Separately, The Canyons star Deen made an amazing remark to Gawker that may help spread word of the movie more effectively than any trailer. “If it’s not on The Simpsons it doesn’t exist and most of the people I meet aren’t on The Simpsons,” Deen said speaking of those who dismiss him since he’s best known as a pornographic actor. “If I met Alec Baldwin and he made me feel like shit I might be a little hurt, because he was on The Simpsons. What do I care if some producer who worked for Steven Spielberg says something insulting? Who cares? You’re not on The Simpsons, go fuck yourself.”
Well, we’re sure West could’ve been on The Simpsons by now if he wanted to be, right? Maybe blame South Park. In the meantime, watch the original trailer for The Canyons below.