For every great movie there is the potential for a great sequel or an abyssmal failure. When Mary Harron‘s AMERICAN PSYCHO premiered, it made Christian Bale a name to be remembered and divided audiences and critics with a violent and satirical look at America in the 1980s. It spawned one of the most atrocious sequels of all time, the cleverly titled AMERICAN PSYCHO 2, starring Mila Kunis and William Shatner. Enough time has apparently passed that there is a new attempt to make a sequel to the 2000 movie.
According to Deadline, FX is developing a television series that will serve as a direct sequel to AMERICAN PSYCHO. The Mila Kunis film did not feature Christian Bale‘s Patrick Bateman so was really a sequel in name only. This FX series will actually focus on the Bateman character with some changes to the setting:
The drama series fast forwards from the late 1980s, when the movie was set, to present day. It will feature serial killer Patrick Bateman, now in his mid-50’s but as outrageous and lethal as ever, taking on a protégé in a sadistic social experiment who will become every bit his equal — a next generation American Psycho.
A contemporary series could certainly have satirical elements mocking our 21st century society. I get the feeling that FX is kind of missing the point of AMERICAN PSYCHO as the ending alludes to the fact that none of the events actually happened and they were a figment of Bateman’s psychotic mind. But, with series like BATES MOTEL and HANNIBAL doing well, I think that is a fact that could be easily overlooked by viewers.
