Luca Guadagnino To Direct American Psycho Adaptation

Luca Guadagnino is taking on another famed property, signing on to direct a new adaptation of American Psycho. Deadline reports that the Call Me By Your Name director is set to direct the new take on the 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel for Lionsgate.

Scott Z. Burns is set to write the film, which like the 2002 movie will take the original novel as its source. The 2002 film was directed by Mary Harron and starred Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a psychopath Manhattan investment banker who becomes a serial killer.

Both the novel and the original film attracted a ton of controversy for its violence and a troubled development and production history, but became profitable for Lionsgate with $34.7 million worldwide against a $7 million budget. It turned Bale into an A-list star.

Guadagnino is coming off the critical and financially successful Challengers. He previously remade the supernatural Dario Argento horror classic Suspiria.