The remake of American Psycho is underway – and members of the team behind the original film have responded to the news.
It was announced last year that Challengers director Luca Guadagnino is attached to film the remake, which – since then – has reportedly had Austin Butler tapped as its lead, originally played by Christian Bale.
The film, which turns 25 this year, stars Christian Bale as a wealthy investment banker in the ‘80s who works to hide his psychopathic behaviour from those around him.
Matt Ross, who co-starred with Bale in the 2000 film, shared with The Hollywood Reporter his feelings about the upcoming project, which will purportedly take creative liberties from the original Bret Easton Ellis novel – a book that Guadagnino revealed to CinemaCon earlier this month that “influenced me so much”.
“On one hand, I am always sad about remakes,” Ross told The Hollywood Reporter. “I personally have been offered them in the past as a director, and I’ve been very reticent to engage in that because it always feels like just mercenary capitalism and nothing else.”
He felt the project comes across “like a business venture more than anything else”, but is interested to see what Guadagnino, whom he called “a wonderful filmmaker”, will do, along with its main star.
“I think they have their work cut out for them, for no other reason than Christian’s performance is exceptional,” Ross stated.
The producer of 2000’s American Psycho, Chris Hanley, also shared with The Hollywood Reporter that he believes Guadagnino has “never made a bad movie”.
While the film is indeed on the path to production, author Ellis previously refuted reports that the book was set to be adapted again. Since then, Mary Harron – the director of the 2000 film – has also opened up about the film’s cultural impact.
Certain corners of the internet have interpreted his character, Patrick Bateman, as someone to aspire to, citing his ruthless and predatory nature as a positive.
Harron discussed the phenomenon and argued that it is a direct contradiction of what was intended, both by her and Ellis. “It was very clear to me and (writer) Guinevere (Turner), who is gay, that we saw it as a gay man’s satire on masculinity” she said.