I Want To Stab You to Death and Play Around with Your Blood
Bret Easton Ellis Takes Another Stab at Screenwriting /
Dustin Rowles
Trade News | November 10, 2009 | Comments (14)
If you’re over the age of 30 and literate, you no doubt know the name Bret Easton Ellis. He, Douglas Coupland, and Jay Mcinerney were the voices of Gen X, back when people actually gave a shit about Generation X. Ellis, of course, has also had some success with novels translated onto the big screen, most notably American Pyscho and, to a lesser extent, the under-appreciated Rules of Attraction. But like the other two novelists, Ellis has become something of an afterthought in the wake of less literate authors like Stephenie Meyer, who are less interested in modern culture and more interested in appealing to books-on-tape teens.
Still, Ellis — unlike the other two, who are mostly whiling away in obscurity (a shame, really, because Coupland is still churning out decent work) — has turned to screen-writing to keep his name alive. Unfortunately, his one stab at a screenplay resulted in the horrific The Informers (based on his own novel). However, he’s still at it — he wrote the screenplay for Adam Davies’ Frog King, based on one of my favorite novels of the decade (Joseph Gordon-Levitt is attached), but that project looks to be completely dead. He’s also collaborating on a project with Gus Van Sant called The Golden Suicides, which is about the real-life double suicide of artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake.
Now word comes from ShockTillYouDrop.com that Ellis is shopping a screenplay for the thriller Bait, which sounds fairly intriguing, if it’s not the mess that was The Informers. The Bait is essentially American Psycho with college kids, a horror movie about a rich kid who holds a group of teenagers hostage and tortures them. For a complete plot synopsis, check here.
Ellis and his obsession with rich kids. God bless him.
ShocktilYouDrop also reports that Brad Furman (The Take) is attached to direct, although our source reveals that Furman has actually left the project, so it’s currently searching for a director.
Comments
Posted by: JQ at November 10, 2009 10:03 AM
This is good news. Though I'll admit to being somewhat trepidatious about its potential for success, I love me some Bret Easton Ellis. Thanks to him I fear and loathe the fashionista elite and want to be them so much!