Mary Harron's film adaptation of the classic 80's set Bret Easton Ellis satirical novel American Psycho was extremely operatic and theatrical, many of the scenes taking place in Patrick Bateman's apartment, various restaurants or his work place with a relentless happy soundtrack almost triggering a pop culture that was driving our lead protagonist insane. The musical parts where our characters usually sing and dance like they would in HAIRSPRAY, instead sent our lead into a killing frenzy. These were his musical interludes, bloody and graphic murders shot as if it were a big musical number! The movie contains just a few different enclosed settings, with a stage like over-the-top performance from Christian Bale and the "in-joke" set pieces which like RESERVOIR DOGS nearly a decade before it, you would have been sure it had been lifted from a stage production. Note for example, the famous scene where Bale gives this monologue to the us (the audience) about the band Huey Lewis & The News with Jared Leto the unfornatue victim of his rage. It's funny, it's theatrical, it's creepy and most importantly, wouldn't cost much money to re-produce...
The Hollywood Reporter give us the news WOW (We're Obsessed With) today that a stage adaptation is in the works from the producers of the 1999 movie, which they hope will be in full swing by 2010. No actors, writers or songwriters have been mentioned yet but it's hoped the musical about a serial killer will catch on like the classic and kind of similar tale of SWEENEY TODD has.
David Johnson of the Johnson-Roessler Co. who is one of the figureheads of the production says that his time as a Wall Street Lawyer in the 80's and his love for Ellis' 1991 novel inspired him to put this production into development.
If there is one novel and one movie which would undoubtedly work on stage, it's AMERICAN PSYCHO and it would be an awesome lead role for a stage actor. Just look what it did for the career of Bale.
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.