9 Movies You Didn't Realise Are Set In The Same Universe

American Psycho remains one of Christian Bale's finest performances, as he perfectly captures the hollow-eyed, soulless, Wall Street murder aficionado, Patrick Bateman. Less memorable is James Van Der Beek's vacuous turn as spoiled rich kid, Sean Bateman, in Rules of Attraction.

Those last names aren't coincidental, by the way. The leads from both films are actually brothers, despite the two never appearing onscreen together.

Released two years apart, American Psycho and Rules of Attraction were both based on Bret Easton Ellis novels, though one certainly struck a more indelible chord with audiences. In fact, Rules of Attraction's place in pop culture as a second tier adaptation aptly mirrors Patrick Bateman's looming shadow over his little brother, Sean.

Pretty much every Bret Easton Ellis novel takes place within the same universe, with major and minor characters overlapping to the point where you're sure Ellis has an entire wall of character portraits connected with yarn in his "office". So that adds the adaptations of Less Than Zero, starring Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey Jr., and The Informers, starring Billy Bob Thornton, into the same universe.