Love him or hate him, you must admit that Bret Easton Ellis’ writing is some of the most innovative and unique work to arise out of the past few decades — Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, and American Psycho not only stunned on the page, but translated into three very good films.
However, his only work at adapting his novels into a screenplay by his own hand was the critically lambasted The Informers, which I have been told to avoid at all costs. I’d like to think, however, that this is simply a fluke, because Ellis’ talents will soon be used to adapt The Golden Suicides with Gus Van Sant (Milk, Elephant) at his side.
Currently, Van Sant is only involved in a co-writing capacity, adapting a Vanity article by Nancy Jo Sales that considers the suicides of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. According to Variety:
“Duncan and Blake formed a popular couple on the downtown New York and Venice, Calif., art scenes. She was one of the first videogame designers for girls, and his ‘digital paintings’ — kaleidoscopic images shown on plasma screens — established him as a rising star on the circuit.
The couple descended into a paranoid spiral when the artists developed a consuming belief that government and religious organizations were conspiring against them. She killed herself in 2007. Blake found her body on the floor of their bedroom, and walked into the Atlantic Ocean a week later, ending his life.”
Suicidal, alt-art, videogame-designing, conspiracy theorists? This story was engineered for the talents of Ellis and Van Sant. The latter is prepping work on Restless, but hopefully he’ll consider directing this film. His documentary style is certainly well-suited to it.
