Luca Guadagnino Hadn’t Seen ‘American Psycho’ Until “Quite Recently”

Last month, author Bret Easton Ellis claimed that Luca Guadagnino’s “American Psycho,” starring Austin Butler, wasn’t actually a thing, and even went as far as to call it “fake news.”

Now here’s Guadagnino himself, speaking about the project, for the first time, and making the surprising revelation that he’d never seen the 2000 film adaptation of “American Psycho” (via Konbini):

I can’t say much about it. I saw Mary Harron’s movie quite recently. I missed it when it came out, but I read the book when it came out in 1990 Italy, and I wrote a script — I was obsessed with the book. I was very sad when they made the movie because I wanted to make the movie. That’s why I didn’t see it for a long time, and then it happened that I might do it.

An “American Psycho” film version, directed by Mary Harron, and starring a never-better Christian Bale, was released in 2000. It’s a good sign that Guadagnino found it too hard to watch Harron’s film these last 25 years — it means he’s invested in making a film version that’s purely his own version of Ellis’ novel, and not influenced by Harron’s film (which did take its faire share of liberties on the source material).

Guadagnino goes on to give a brief update on the current status of his “American Psycho which he says is currently being written:

I met this great screenwriter, whom I always loved, called Scott Z. Burns, who wrote “Contagion,” who has directed himself — great writer and so so smart. He’s now writing it, so we’ll see.

If anyone can afford to wait for the script to be completed then it’s Guadagnino. He has an inordinate amount of projects in various stages of development including “Separate Rooms,” “The Lord of the Flies,” “Leading Men,” and “Buddenbrooks.”

Guadagnino’s already shot and completed a new film (“After the Hunt”) set for 2025 release. The next film he’s shooting will be the DCU’s “Sgt. Rock,” which is now rumored to star Jeremy Allen, and eyeing a summer shoot.

In the meantime, Guadagnino posted an image of himself proudly donning a DCU sweatshirt. It seems like he’s all in, and fully invested, when it comes to making his upcoming comic book movie.