American Psycho [2000] Mary Harron

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American Psycho (2000)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/

American Psycho is a 2000 cult thriller film directed by Mary Harron based on Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the same name. Though predominantly a psycho thriller, the film also blends elements of horror, satire, and black comedy. It stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, with Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Justin Theroux, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe, and Samantha Mathis. The film focuses on Wall Street yuppie Patrick Bateman (Bale), whose mental instability and blood lust lead him to serial killing. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on April 14, 2000.

Christian Bale ... Patrick Bateman
Justin Theroux ... Timothy Bryce
Josh Lucas ... Craig McDermott
Bill Sage ... David Van Patten
Chloë Sevigny ... Jean
Reese Witherspoon ... Evelyn Williams
Samantha Mathis ... Courtney Rawlinson
Matt Ross ... Luis Carruthers
Jared Leto ... Paul Allen
Willem Dafoe ... Det. Donald Kimball
Cara Seymour ... Christie
Guinevere Turner ... Elizabeth
Stephen Bogaert ... Harold Carnes

Mary Harron, who had previously directed I Shot Andy Warhol (based on the story of Valerie Solanas), directed the film and co-wrote its screenplay with Guinevere Turner. This screenplay was selected over three others, including one by Ellis himself. Turner claims Ellis' only complaint with the film was Bateman's moonwalk before killing Paul Allen. In the novel, Patrick Bateman's favorite artists are Genesis, Huey Lewis and the News and Whitney Houston. An entire chapter is devoted to each. Virtually every line in the film, including voice-overs, are taken nearly verbatim from Ellis' novel. One of the few discrepancies is that several names from the book were changed for the film; for instance Paul Owen became Paul Allen and Tim Price became Tim Bryce. In an interview, Mary Harron claimed to be distressed upon discovering that Paul Allen was a high-powered figure in business and technology and that she meant nothing by the use of his name.[

American Psycho, as other works by Ellis, has connecting characters from his other books which subsequently do not appear at all in the film version. The exception is the character of Vanden (whom Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) introduces as her cousin at Espace), who is also from Rules of Attraction. Patrick Bateman's brother Sean from Rules of Attraction is in the chapter entitled Birthday/Brother, but is mentioned nowhere in the film; However, Patrick is mentioned by Sean in both the book and the film version of Rules of Attraction.

Johnny Depp was informally attached to the project, first with Stuart Gordon in talks and then with David Cronenberg attached. Brad Pitt was once attached to star, with David Cronenberg directing and Ellis himself writing the script. Edward Norton was offered the part of Bateman but turned it down. Mary Harron was set to direct, and offered the role of Bateman to Christian Bale, when production company Lions Gate Entertainment issued a press release that Leonardo DiCaprio would star. Oliver Stone subsequently expressed interest in directing the film which would see DiCaprio as Patrick Bateman, James Woods as Donald Kimball and Cameron Diaz as Evelyn Williams with a script written by Matthew Markwalder. Harron resigned in protest because of Stone's and DiCaprio's desire to make Bateman more humane and less of a cold blooded killer. DiCaprio was going to be paid $20 million for the film. When Gloria Steinem lobbied DiCaprio not to make the film, on the grounds that his fan base consisted mostly of young teenage girls following his Titanic success, he dropped out, as did Stone. Ewan McGregor was subsequently offered the part, but declined after Christian Bale personally urged him to do so. Eventually Harron and Bale returned together to the project. Many people[who?] in the film industry had said that the novel was "un-filmable" because of its graphic violence and sexual content.

Christian Bale spent several months working out by himself, and then three hours a day with a trainer during pre-production, in order to achieve the proper physique for the narcissistic Bateman. To prepare for the role, Bale spoke to Harron on the phone about "how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from another planet, watching what people did and trying to work out the right way to behave". During their conversations, he told her that he had seen Tom Cruise on David Letterman's talk show and Harron related that Bale was struck by the movie star's "very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy."[