‘Inferno’ producer Chris Hanley says actress will play ’70s porn star Linda Lovelace.

A few years back, Anna Faris made headlines by revealing to MTV News that she was planning to play late porn icon Linda Lovelace in a biopic about her controversial rise and fall from fame. Now, after a period of dormancy following Faris’ departure from the project, one of the film’s producers has confirmed an eyebrow-raising replacement: Lindsay Lohan.

Last month, The New York Post ran an item saying that Lohan had been “telling friends” that she’ll play the “Deep Throat” star. That report actually linked her to a different project entitled “Lovelace,” when in actuality she has been in talks with the people making a competing project entitled “Inferno.”

“The idea has been kicked around for months,” a producer on “Inferno,” Wali Razaqi, told MTV News when approached for comment. “The director [Matthew Wilder] told me it would be a very good role for her. So we’re hoping to have her.”

Contacted separately, “Inferno” producer Chris Hanley said that Lohan’s participation has been locked in. “That is confirmed,” he said. The producers are making plans to attend the Cannes Film Festival to seek financing, and had planned to officially announce Lohan at that time.

“Linda Lovelace” was the stage name Linda Susan Boreman adopted before starring in “Throat,” the 1972 flick about a frustrated woman exploring (and exploring, and exploring again) her sexuality. Lovelace became a household name after “Deep Throat” arrived as a full-fledged pop-culture phenomenon that had stars like Johnny Carson and Jack Nicholson attending showings. Porn became chic, and the film has to date grossed more than $600 million worldwide (some believe it is still be the most profitable movie ever made).

In the years that followed, however, Lovelace reinvented herself as an anti-porn crusader, toiled in poverty and insisted that she had a gun held to her head off-camera during those infamous “Throat” scenes, blaming the experience largely on her manager/husband Chuck Traynor. She died in 2002 at the age of 53 from injuries suffered in an automobile accident.

In 2007, Faris told us that the casting of Traynor had proven difficult because it was such a pivotal role; Sam Rockwell was reportedly eventually cast in the role, but his continued participation opposite Lohan seems questionable. “This would be incredibly intense,” the “House Bunny” actress said of the project at the time. “It’s a really deep, dark drama.”

For obvious reasons, “Inferno” become even more enticing with Lohan in the lead role. The once-wholesome teen star has spent the last several years expanding her reputation into some very adult areas, culminating in a recent photo shoot that had her pointing a gun into her mouth. When approached for comment on the “Inferno” casting, Lohan’s representatives did not respond by press time.

Source: MTV News