Lionsgate Developing American Psycho TV Series, Exploring Options For Saw

Lionsgate is looking to bring a couple of their films to the small screen with a American Psycho show in the works and a possible Saw series. Lionsgate TV chairman Kevin Beggs told Deadline in a new interview that they are in development of a TV adaptation for the 2000 Mary Harron-directed film, itself based in the 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis. He also said that they’re “exporing” their options for shows based on other properties and specifically mentioned Saw.

American Psycho starred Christian Bale and, like the book, centered on Patrick Bateman who is a materialistic stock broker who is a psychopathic serial killer. The film and book heavily satirized the materialism of the 1980s, with Bateman able to get away with his crimes largely because the people around him never look beyond the shallowest surface level and even mistake him and murder victims with other people. The film also starred Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas and Chloe Sevigny and was exceedingly controversial upon its release. It earned largely positive reviews, though there was a lot of polarization among critics, and went on to gross $34.3 million against a $7 million budget.

Meanwhile, Deadline nots that a Saw show is still in very early talks with Mark Burg and Oren Koules’ Twisted Television set to be involved. Beggs said, “We’ve just wrapped up Dear White People, which was a really good experience. Blindspotting is coming up. American Psycho is in development. We’re always exploring what we can do in television with something like the Saw franchise, so that’s a conversation.”