6. The Author Liked Everything, Except Bales Dancing
Brett Easton Ellis the author of the original American Psycho novel was heavily involved at one stage of the filmmaking process. Before Harron and Bale had joined the production, David Cronenberg had hired Ellis to adapt his own novel into a screenplay. He struggled with the task, especially with Cronenberg wanting to exorcise the restaurant and night club-set sections of the book and also remove the violence. It did veer off a lot from the book, Ellis said of his draft, which at one stage ended with a big musical number on the top of the World Trade Centre to the tune of Barry Manilows Daybreak. A few writers came and took passes at the script after this, with the eventually filmed screenplay credited to Harron herself and Guinevere Turner. And Ellis was happy with the result, except for two things that didnt chime with him. Apparently, Ellis didnt enjoy the films use of voiceover and also didnt care for Christian Bales improvised dancing in the now iconic scene where Bale murders Paul Allen to the sounds of Huey Lewis And The News. Personally, I admire Bale's moves. Just look up there at the top of the page. Hypnotic, isn't he?
