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Novelist Bret Easton Ellis has debunked rumors that Queer director Luca Guadagnino is planning to direct a new adaptation of his 1982 book American Psycho. The rumors had also indicated that Austin Butler was to star as the leading character Patrick Bateman, a role played by Christian Bale in Mary Harron’s 2000 film adaptation of Ellis’s novel.
The rumors about Guadagnino’s purported remake were fueled by a 2024 announcement from Lionsgate that Scott Z. Burns would be writing an adaptation. Movieweb’s Archie Fenn, however thinks the whole thing was “nothing but a studio cash grab.’” Fenn wrote that “Lionsgate had a very tough 2024, with many of their suspected planned tentpole movies flopping at the box office. Some suspect the American Psycho remake to be a way for the studio to easily recuperate some desperately needed cash.”
In a recent podcast, Ellis said: “I have a feeling it’s fake news. I heard somewhere, from someone, that there are no contracts. Austin Butler hasn’t signed anything to play Patrick Bateman. Luca doesn’t have a deal. Scott Burns, who is supposed to write the screenplay, doesn’t have a deal either.
“From various sources that I have, this is just fake news that was put out there to see how an audience is going to react…. If it does exist, I am not involved, I have nothing to do with this, I might get some money if they do this, but I am not involved creatively on any level, and that is all I know.”
Renowned for its graphic violence, Ellis’s novel focused on Bateman, an investment banker in Manhattan who led a secret life as a serial killer. The novelist has also written several film scripts, including Relapse (which will mark his directorial debut), The Canyons, and Smiley Face Killers. Ellis’s semi-autobiographical series, The Shards, will soon appear on HBO, directed by Kristoffer Borgli.