Who is Luca Guadagnino? Everything we know about the Italian auteur remaking American Psycho, explored

Luca Guadagnino in American Psycho (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)
Luca Guadagnino in American Psycho (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)

Luca Guadagnino is now all set to direct a new American Psycho. Guadagnino is an Italian film director and producer whose films typically contain complex emotions, erotic elements, and beautiful visuals. He has won several awards, including a Silver Lion, and has been nominated for an Academy Award and three BAFTA Awards.

American Psycho is a 2000 horror satire film directed by Mary Harron, who also co-wrote the screenplay. It was adapted from a novel by Bret Easton Ellis. It stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a masochistic and egotistical serial killer with a secret life as a banker.

As per reports by Variety, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is in the final stages of negotiating the rights to remake this cult classic. The good news is that Scott Z. Burns has signed on to write the screenplay.


Everything to know about the main source of Luca Guadagnino’s American Psycho

American Psycho was written by Bret Easton Ellis and published in 1991. Most readers will have seen the successful 2000 film adaptation starring Christian Bale. It also inspired a Broadway musical in 2016 which only ran for 81 performances and was closed because it didn't make enough money.

The novel is a graphic depiction of violence, interwoven with reviews of 1980s music by Phil Collins and Whitney Houston, and repetitive descriptions of the fashion of the time. It therefore makes no distinction between activities, as the main character, Patrick Bateman, works on Wall Street and commits what would be considered heinous crimes, including rape, cannibalism, murder, and so on.

The story does not necessarily take a stand against Bateman or his culture in American Psycho. Instead, the graphic violence and the unemotional way in which it is described create an almost otherworldly experience, and this is the closest the novel comes to ethics or aesthetics.

There is no way to express the misery and confusion of Bateman's seeming inability to understand his condition, and this leads to a desire for clear moral direction and a precise view of what has become an incomprehensible culture.


Guadagnino’s take on American Psycho

The latest version of Bret Easton Ellis's 1991 novel - about a Wall Street investment banker killer leading a double life - will be reimagined by Luca Guadagnino. Scott Z. Burns, best known for writing The Report, will pen the script.

In a statement to Deadline, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson said.

“We are thrilled to add another elite filmmaker to our upcoming slate, Luca is a brilliant artist, and the perfect visionary to create a whole new interpretation of this potent and classic IP."

This isn't the first time Luca Guadagnino has tried to put his sensualist stamp on a horror classic; he also made 2018's Suspiria, a sort of loose remake of Dario Argento's 1977 film of the same name. His other films include the Oscar-nominated drama Call Me By Your Name and the cannibal horror film Bones and All.


Follow SoapCentral for more interesting updates on the upcoming remakes of popular novels.

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Edited by Apoorva Jujjavarapu