David Cronenberg's MAPS TO THE STARS (2014) presented by Bruce Wagner
Screenwriter Bruce Wagner joins us in person to present a special screening of David Cronenberg’s pitch-black satire of Los Angeles, presented with literary magazine The Big One.
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Jun 14, 2026, 8:00 PM
BRAIN DEAD STUDIOS, 611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
Bruce Wagner presents: MAPS TO THE STARS
a film by David Cronenberg
2014, Canada, 101m, DCP
Introduced by screenwriter Bruce Wagner
Presented with The Big One
Sunday, June 14
Brain Dead Studios
611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
doors: 7:30pm
film: 8:00pm
We are thrilled to present a special screening of David Cronenberg’s pitch-black Hollywood satire—a portrait of Los Angeles as an inferno of narcissism, greed and sexual perversity—whose polarizing reception upon release has led to its contemporary reappraisal as a modern camp classic.
This event is presented with The Big One, a print-exclusive literary magazine featuring emergent and established Los Angeles writers. Issue No. 4, “Wellness & Reinvention,” features an interview with novelist, screenwriter, and producer Bruce Wagner, and will be sold at the event.
Wagner’s darkly comedic depictions of the intersections of fame, desire, desperation, and metaphysics draw from his own experiences living in Los Angeles, delivering transgressive, surreal, and sometimes cynical narratives. He is a conduit of Hollywood lore, having gone from chauffeuring stars as a local limo driver himself to portray Robert Pattinson portraying the limo driver in MAPS TO THE STARS, a screenplay Wagner wrote twenty-three years prior to its release. He sat down with The Big One to discuss Los Angeles literature, his legacy, and the film:
“It was something I wrote out of utter exasperation… I wrote MAPS TO THE STARS when I felt stillborn. I felt that everything had died, in essence, so I wrote something like a dream journal. I wrote something that I felt would be impossible to make into a film. Not that it wasn’t cinematic, but that it didn't cohere or imitate or feel remotely compatible with Hollywood movies and even as an independent or a foreign film.” -Bruce Wagner
Special thanks to Johanna Stone and Gabrielle Sones (The Big One) and Darrell Brett.
“This is MULHOLLAND DRIVE for perverts.” -Ivy Wolk
“A vicious masterpiece.” -Daniel Goldhaber.