Before defending the idea of an “American Psycho” remake, let’s first drop in on the reasons why it sounds like a terrible idea. First of all, Lionsgate deciding to develop a remake and searching for a writer to tackle the script screams “hey, here’s some valuable IP that we haven’t monetized for a while!” It’s quite a contrast to how the original movie got made.
Speaking to Vice for the film’s 20th anniversary, Ellis recalled that the film adaptation was “very surprising” because the book didn’t exactly fit with mainstream American cinema. “There was nobody in line asking to buy ‘American Psycho’ or option it, except for one producer, and that was Ed Pressman,” said Ellis. Pressman was “obsessed” with turning the book into a movie and kept optioning the rights, year after year. Even Ellis’ own agents thought nothing would ever come of it. Harron herself was “intrigued” by the novel, but had her doubts when she was eventually approached by the production company: “I wasn’t sure if I could make a movie out of it, but I said, ‘I’ll write a script and I’ll see.'”
The film was ultimately enough of a box office success to get a hasty cash-in sequel, “American Psycho II: All American Girl” — which is another reason why fans are right to be wary. The rushed follow-up took a script titled “The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die,” which had nothing to do with “American Psycho,” and roughly shoehorned in a connection to Patrick Bateman. The results were not great and ultimately Lionsgate scrapped the planned theatrical release and sent the movie straight to video.
So, the studio doesn’t exactly have a history of respecting the integrity of Ellis’ novel or Harron’s movie. Speaking to The Guardian in 2010, Ellis revealed that Lionsgate even mulled over giving “American Psycho” the “NCIS” treatment: “They were thinking about doing ‘American Psycho In LA,’ ‘American Psycho In Las Vegas,’ and making a whole franchise out of it.”