Bret Interview About American Psycho

Interview with Bret about American Psycho. Like his answer about his books being 'dated' by all the pop culture references found within them.

Also interesting to hear him say he was scared to re-read American Psycho as prep for writing Lunar Park. He was concerned that all the early critics might have been right.

Re-Making the American Psycho Movie

I'm not sure what the purpose behind a re-make of the American Psycho movie is - but it apparently might happen (not yet greenlit according to Variety).

Noble Jones wrote the script and is also directing.

Jones pitched the project to Lionsgate several months ago and recently turned in a script that explores how Bateman would fare in modern-day Gotham.

@BretEastonEllis has a tweet about it.

I have warned Lionsgate that I will not approve a new version of "American Psycho" unless it stars SCOTT DISICK or MILES FISHER.

How To Live Your Live Like An Ellis Novel

From Thought Catalog - How To Live Your Life Like Its A Bret Easton Ellis Novel. An excerpt:

Care a lot about freeways and restaurants and streets. It's important to note that you took Fountain instead of Sunset to meet your drug dealer because Sunset is usually a nightmare and makes you anxious.

Ellis Announces Last(?) Bookstore Appearance ... Ever

Is Ellis serious about being done with writing novels? It appears so.

@BretEastonEllis The last ever U.S. bookstore appearance of "Bret Easton Ellis" will be held at Skylight Books in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 19th, 2011...

Ellis Writes About Charlie Sheen

Bret has an article in The Daily Beast about how Charlie Sheen is giving us what we want.

According to Bret's twitter feed, this is a softened, edited version of what could be a much bigger, harsher article.

Testing New Server

Testing.

We've moved to a new server and this is a test post. Hopefully everything goes well, but if you notice anything odd over the next few days - please send me an email.

American Psycho, 20th Anniversary Edition

So there might be a 20th anniversary edition of American Psycho in the works that includes an epilogue from Bret about the book. [thanks to andrew for the tip]

American Psycho Musical Update

So that American Psycho musical is really going to happen. Vanity Fair even has a list of the musical numbers.

I particularly like "Huey Lewis and the Bruise".

Downers Grove Casting

Way back in February of 2008, we posted the news that Bret was writing the screenplay for Downers Grove.

Two and a half years later, we have some casting news - Hayden Panettiere, Nikki Reed and Rebecca DeMornay are all now attached to the film which is set to start production in the Spring of 2011.

The movie will be set in a high school in the Chicago suburb where every year, one senior dies a bizarre death before the end of the school year. Panettiere's character fears that she's the next victim.

Buy Downers Grove: Book - Kindle

Teacher Assigns 'Rules', Gets Removed From Classroom

What happens when a teacher in Queens, NY assigns her high school class to read The Rules of Attraction? The teacher gets removed from the classroom.

"The homework was to find the most descriptive parts. The only descriptive parts were the parts where they were doing sexual things," Grasso said.

A review by Publishers Weekly called the book "...adolescent fantasy of sex..." that "...manages to pack in a suicide, assorted suicide attempts, an abortion, and the death of a parent."

Love their characterization that the "only descriptive parts" are of the sex. I'm guessing this same person could read American Psycho and say the only descriptive parts were of murders.

Robert F. Coleman Interviews Ellis

An interview of Bret by Robert F. Coleman. Reading this, I can see how close the interview came to being a complete train wreck - but between Bret being in a good mood and Coleman embracing his lack of preparation - it made for an interesting encounter.

Robert Coleman - Okay, so are you going to be re-introducing any characters in future works?

Bret Easton Ellis - No. Because I don't think there'll be any future works.

R - Why's that?

B - Because I'm not necessarily interested in writing a novel now.I'm more interested in TV and film. I'm writing movies all the time and none of them get made and I've worked on many TV series and none of them have gotten made. And I've finally gotten to where I am right now, and I'm happy about it.

Ellis at the Hammer on Nov 16th

Bret, along with Jonathan Gold, will be doing a conversation at the Hammer on November 16th. Tickets are free.

Ellis' Connection With Elvis Costello

A Reuters interview with Ellis on his book tour in Frankfurt. Unlike alot of the interviews, I actually learned something new from this one:

Q: The title of your first novel, Less Than Zero, and the title of your latest book, Imperial Bedrooms, are taken from a song and album by Elvis Costello. Why?

A: When I was a white, upper middle-class, educated young man, I felt that Elvis Costello spoke to me. The word-play, the cleverness, the intellectual height seemed really cool to me. I liked the song Less than Zero and what it meant in regard to the book I was writing. Both play with the idea of emotional fascism. I like Costello's song 'All This Useless Beauty' too, but Less Than Zero seemed the most relevant at the time.

I'm not a Costello fan and have never noticed this being mentioned before.

Also thought this was an interesting statement:

My writing broke up a lot of my friendships... I never saw my writing as a career though, only a hobby, and that's why I don't regret the fact that it ruined a lot of friendships.

Bret In Italy

Photo of Bret on an Italian TV show promoting Imperial Bedrooms.

All That Glitters

Bret presents - All That Glitters.

New Ellis Short Story

Bret wrote a short story for Nowness.com. This has apparently been up since June - which shows just how behind I am in all things Ellis. (I wish this story had a title, it would be alot easier to talk about)

... exclusively for NOWNESS, he creates a portrait of an obsessive character in the throes of post-relationship drama - once again capturing the neuroses that are so ineluctably a feature of our modern lives.

The Devil In You

Play the Imperial Bedrooms 'choose your own adventure'.

I got 87%.

Learning Self-Pleasure From Ellis Books

ShortList did an interview with Bret.

And who knew all the great things you could learn from an Ellis book.

Older women do not like my work. But many young women do. I had a shocking example in Manhattan when I did a reading -- a lot of people showed up. I'm the oldest person in the room, there was this girl there, 23, 24, and she had two copies of American Psycho and she leaned in as I was signing and whispered, "This is the book that taught me how to masturbate." So I have a very wide audience.

The Cultural Significance Of Ellis

Russ Marshalek has an article on Imperial Bedrooms and the cultural significance of Bret for Creative Loafing

Ellis Pushing Golden Suicides To Van Sant

Looks like Bret is really lobbying hard for Gus Van Sant to direct The Golden Suicides.

Also, a Q&A with Ellis, mostly about film.