Studio:
Universal Pictures.
Production Company:
Single Cell Productions.
Project Phase: In Development.
Who's In It:
Willem Dafoe (unconfirmed); Jared Leto (unconfirmed).
Who's Making It:
Mary Harron (Screenwriter?, Director?); Chris Hanley, Edward R. Pressman
(Producers); Michael Stipe (Executive Producer); Danny Elfman (Musical Score); based on the novel
by Bret Easton Ellis.
Premise: A young yuppie serial killer gets his kicks by torturing and murdering young women and then decorating his apartment with their remains.
Release Date: 1999.
Comments: None.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page draft submitted by 'Widgett'.]
April 17, 1998... Doris T. reported in her Daily Digest column that Harron's adaptation of the novel has been given a sense of humor, both to deal with the inherent nastiness of the subject matter and to get producers to actually go forward with the project. Billy Crudup was once mentioned in regards to playing the title character. [Reported by 'Widgett'.]
May 18, 1998... Yesterday was when the rumor started making the rounds. News agencies from outside the ones in North America (one being the Norwegian Broadcasting Company) heard reports that Leonardo DiCaprio had been approached to play the lead psychopath in this film. The offer from Lions Gate, the film's producer, to DiCaprio was said to be $20 million. Later that same day a representative from Lions Gate confirmed the rumor. [Sent from Cannes by 'toralvp', 'Latauro' and Pete.]
Today the story broke domestically. The controversial $40 million picture got a significant boost in its development when DiCaprio agreed to star in the film (today reported to earn Leo a $21 million paycheck.) Shooting is hoped to start in the fall in New York City. In a statement Lions Gate president Michael Paseornek said "To have the most romantic man in the movies play someone with no heart or soul will take people's breath away." [Reported by Todd Dupler, 'lilacrabbit', 'Shrine', 'Gralex', anonymous.]
Suddenly one of the hardest projects to get off-the-ground seems extremely likely to get made, all thanks to one casting move. With DiCaprio's stellar Titanic success cementing him as a leading man, its unsure how his decision to star in the screen adaptation of one of the decade's most controversial books will sit with his legions of teenage female fans. As one CA scooper wrote to us, maybe the show's creators had this in mind: " I guess they're going for the 9-12 year old female demographic on this one," 'Lilacrabbit' mused. May 26, 1998... Yesterday's edition of The Wichita Eagle newspaper ran a story on this production. The interesting thing to us is that the story mentioned that screenwriter Mary Harron had dropped out of the project. So who's the new screenplay by? ['Scorpion' was our paper boy for this one.]
August, 1998... With DiCaprio passing on the project to instead star in The Beach, word is Mary Harron could be back on-board the project. But does she want to after she was forgotten about when DiCaprio was interested in the film?