After telling Venice that AI meant he no longer needed Black actors, Paul Schrader starts an erotic thriller with Cara Delevingne next month
Cara Delevingne and Liam Hemsworth are set to lead controversial filmmaker Paul Schrader’s new erotic thriller, built around a love triangle and boasting a title that’ll raise eyebrows.
Paul Schrader, a writer-director who is rarely out of the headlines for long (sometimes for his work, sometimes for his outbursts), has locked in the cast for his new erotic thriller, Non Compos Mentis. If you’ve been craving a film that combines a love triangle, family quarrels, and a genuinely chaotic creative mind, well, here’s your stop.
Cast, premise, and let's be blunt, drama
Cara Delevingne will take the lead here, tangled up with Liam Hemsworth and Sam Worthington in what’s being sold as a ‘consuming affair.’ For anyone needing context: Delevingne slips into the middle of two brothers—one is a buttoned-up New York defence lawyer (that’s Hemsworth), the other a rough corporate heir (Worthington)—with the brothers in bits over their mother’s worsening dementia. That’s the set-up. Into this, Delevingne’s character arrives, and the official word is things get ‘volatile’ fast: there’s obsession, backstabbing, and a nasty fight over the family payday.
Weird detail—casting is still open for some parts, with the lead trio locked but other names not finalised. Shooting is due to kick off next month in New York. Schrader handles both writing and directing, as you’d expect; David Gonzales (his longtime manager and partner) produces, with Nadine de Barros from Fortitude International executive producing.
Production on Non Compos Mentis starts in New York next month.
The Schrader factor – controversy included
If you know Schrader at all, it’s probably thanks to his scripts for some Martin Scorsese staples—Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Last Temptation of Christ—or his own films such as American Gigolo and the distinctly odd Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Recently, though, it’s his comments that have kept him in the news more than any film. His last project, a Western called Three Guns at Dawn, fell apart mainly over casting. He couldn’t get Black leads, and when grilled at Venice about it, he did not exactly hold back:
Discussing the failed Three Guns at Dawn at the Venice Film Festival, Schrader said, "We sent it out to actors, and no Black actors wanted to play in a movie where there are no good Black people." He added, "And it sort of died. But then AI came along, and I didn’t need Black actors."
That went down about as badly as you’d expect, but for better or worse, Non Compos Mentis is going ahead along more traditional lines—live actors, human drama, the works. It’s Schrader, so at the very least, it won’t be dull.