20 Things You Didn't Know About American Psycho

6. Oliver Stone Temporarily Replaced Mary Harron As Director

There was a brief period where Mary Harron quit the project, after warning Lionsgate that she'd walk if they tried to force her to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Patrick Bateman.

When the studio insisted on Leo, Harron left, at which point veteran filmmaker Oliver Stone was brought aboard to mount the DiCaprio-starring project.

Stone's vision for the film included a new supporting cast consisting of James Woods (Detective Kimball), Cameron Diaz (Evelyn), Elizabeth Berkley (Courtney), and Chloë Sevigny (Jean), while Jared Leto was retained as Paul Allen.

Ultimately DiCaprio also left the project to film The Beach after failing to agree on the film's tone with Stone, who reportedly wanted to minimise the satirical aspect and focus more on Patrick's psychology.

But once the budget began to balloon out of control, Stone also left. Lionsgate then brought Harron back, and she reverted to her original casting picks, except for keeping Sevigny aboard.