Nonsense: Lionsgate plans to remake "American Psycho," according to Variety, though it hasn't been greenlit yet.
"American Psycho" came out in 2000. The new version would be set in "modern day" New York.
Let us count the ways in which this doesn't make sense:
- The timing is awful. Wall Street's less decadent than ever before, thanks to Dodd-Frank and Occupy Everything and cultural sea-changes and a whole mess of other things.
- "American Psycho" is still hugely relevant as a film. People watch it, quote it, send each other links to the business-card and Huey Lewis (NSFW) scenes.
- Christian Bale is a movie star, and other than Batman, Patrick Bateman remains his emblematic role.
- With the 2000 film, Mary Harron managed to improve on Bret Easton Ellis' hugely flawed novel in almost every way. She cut the excessive sexual depravity, gave Bateman more of an empathetic charisma and streamlined the overloaded plot.
- That means, with a remake, writer/director Noble Jones would likely have to move back toward the book, unless Jones were to take an entirely different direction altogether. In that case, why not just make a different film?
- Jones is a protege of "The Social Network" director David Fincher, which means he's learned from the best, but this seems like a terrible first full-length to undertake — with such a precedent, you're setting yourself up to fail.
Stick to the books that don't already have adaptations, Lionsgate.
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