Earth’s thirstiest filmmaker might be adapting ‘American Psycho’, for some reason and, honestly? I’m so excited

Your resident American Psycho is here and ready to report that a new movie is looming over Patrick Bateman fans. The Bret Easton Ellis novel has been adapted into a film previously and we even had a musical version of it. Now, a new direction is taking an axe swing.

News broke that Luca Guadagnino is in the final talks to direct a new adaption of the novel. The film will be adapted by Scott Z. Burns. As someone who loves the Mary Harron movie most of all and love the musical adaptation from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with music by Duncan Sheik, I am….actually really excited.

First, I wish they’d adapt the musical for film because I do think it is one of the more brilliant book to musical adaptations around. But even if this is just an adaptation of Ellis’ novel, there is still a lot to pull from the original source material that Harron’s film (which she co-wrote with Guinevere Turner) didn’t include.

I do have fear over the film having two men behind it. One of the major themes throughout the Harron and Turner movie is the toxic masculinity that bred a man like Patrick Bateman. While I do think that it is possible for men to understand that concept (the musical also did a great job), there is something very special about women telling Patrick Bateman’s story.

All that being said, there really is no current director I’d want to direct this more than Guadagnino. I think he tells fascinating stories with his female characters and uses his male characters to make commentaries on society. So he is a pretty spectacular pick as a director. I am slightly less familiar with Burns work but Contagion did recently have a boom during the COVID-pandemic with fans praising it.

A perfect story, ripe for adaptations

Patrick Bateman’s story is one that I do think continues to be important. He is a representation of the downfall of toxic masculinity. His view of the world is clouded by his own self worth and he sees others only for how they can benefit him. When he treats other human beings as less than himself, seeing them as objects to kill and play with, it isn’t a commentary on one man. It is a commentary on men like this that do exist and ARE benefited by the patriarchy.

Getting to see a different take on it in a post-Trump world is something that I have been looking forward to exploring. And knowing that Guadagnino is someone who can and does do great commentaries on the idea of the patriarchy delights me. I just hope that we get to really see how Patrick Bateman can exist in his own world because of him benefiting as a straight white rich male in the patriarchy.

Until I know more about the casting, I am INVESTED. “We are thrilled to add another elite filmmaker to our upcoming slate,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson (via the press release). “Luca is a brilliant artist, and the perfect visionary to create a whole new interpretation of this potent and classic IP.”