Squeaky-clean star Amanda Seyfried is looking to dirty up her image a bit, as the actress is reportedly in talks to play former porn actress Linda Lovelace, who gained notoriety after starring in the 1972 hardcore adult film “Deep Throat”, in a new biopic. In addition, Seyfried may be joined by Peter Sarsgaard, who is in early negotiations to star as Lovelace’s husband, photographer Chuck Traynor.
The project is based on the 2001 book “The Complete Linda Lovelace” by Eric Danville, with a script by W. Merritt Johnson (HBO’s “In Treatment”) and Andy Bellin, according to Variety, which broke the news. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who most recently co-directed the experimental Allen Ginsberg film “Howl” starring James Franco, will take the helm. Franco was previously attached to the role of Traynor opposite Kate Hudson as Lovelace, but both actors departed the project when Hudson became pregnant.
Clearly hoping to beat a competing Lovelace biopic directed by Matthew Wilder and starring Malin Akerman (and based on the porn star’s 1980 autobiography “Ordeal”) to the marketplace, Epstein and Friedman are looking to start production on the film (entitled, fittingly, “Lovelace”) in January.
Born Linda Susan Boreman in the Bronx, Lovelace achieved infamy at the age of 23 after starring in the 1972 hardcore pornographic film “Deep Throat”, which achieved an unprecedented degree of mainstream popularity and now ranks as one of the most profitable independent films of all time. With the publication of her autobiography, Lovelace denounced the film and the rest of her porn career, claiming she was forced at gunpoint to appear in “Deep Throat” by her abusive husband/manager Traynor. She died in 2002 at the age of 53 after suffering massive internal injuries in an automobile accident.
Seyfried can currently be seen in the sci-fi/action film “In Time” opposite Justin Timberlake, which opened this weekend to a gross slightly north of $12 million. Her next big-screen release is the serial-killer thriller “Gone”, slated to hit theaters on February 24, 2012.