American Psycho is getting a remake, with writer Scott Z. Burns (Side Effects, Contagion, The Bourne Ultimatum) set to do a new adaptation of author Brent Easton Ellis’s classic novel, and director Luca Guadagnino is in “final talks” to helm. Guadagnino is best known for directing the 2018 remake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, and more recently the steamy sports-romance film Challengers starring Zendaya. It’s noted that this will be a new adaptation of the book – and not a remake of the original film.
Lionsgate and Frenesy Films are developing the new American Psycho with Sam Pressman executive producing. Pressman is also the son of Edward R. Pressman, the producer of American Psycho (2000).
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“We are thrilled to add another elite filmmaker to our upcoming slate,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said in a statement. “Luca is a brilliant artist, and the perfect visionary to create a whole new interpretation of this potent and classic IP.”
The first American Psycho (2000) movie adaptation from writer/director Mary Harron was a box office flop ($34M on a $7M budget), but went on to become one of the cult-hit breakouts of the early DVD era. The film also made an international star out of Christian Bale, who starred as psychotic 1980s NYC yuppie Patrick Bateman.
American Psycho (2000) admittedly took liberties with how it adapted Ellis’s novel – even though it became infamous for some of its more hardcore scenes of sex, murder – or a combination of both. This new adaptation, in this day and age, could potentially go further into sort of graphic details that got the novel censored in so many different places over the years; however, if Luca Guadagnino is the sort of director being considered, it seems like this new version could also play with the lines of fantasy, reality, and satirical imagery that Ellis was playing with in his book.
This new American Psycho movie is now in development.
Via Deadline
