BEE Twitter Update

Bret's Twitter page has moved from @eastonellis to @BretEastonEllis.

JD Salinger Dead, BEE Taking Fire

I don't understand whats going on with Bret's twitter comment about JD Salinger's death, but its not playing well with the masses. Some of comments are harsh.

I will add the caveat to all this that Bret's twitter post doesn't actually mention Salinger by name, so he could be referring to something else.

Below is a screengrab:

Update: Bret's Twitter page has moved from @eastonellis to @BretEastonEllis.

Imperial Bedrooms Cover and Synopsis

Thanks to a tipster, we now have a cover and synopsis for Imperial Bedrooms (link is a PDF). Because the PDF is located in an international site for Random House, its possible that the cover we are seeing is not what the final US edition will look like. Here's the cover, and the synopsis is after the jump:

Bret At The MoCA Museum

Photo of Bret with Nick Jarecki at the 30th anniversary of the MoCA museum.

First Line of Imperial Bedrooms

Via his Twitter account, Bret reveals the first line of 'Imperial Bedrooms'.

They had made a movie about us.

Ellis To Write Stalker TV Series

For a novelist, Bret is sure branching out into other methods of storytelling recently. Variety is reporting that Bret will create a TV series based on the novel "The Follower" by Jason Starr.

It will chronicle the dating lives of twentysomething New Yorkers as seen through the eyes of a stalker. Starr's dark satire was published last year by St. Martin's Press.

The series will be produced by HBO and Lionsgate TV and executive produced by Jason Blum, the producer of the runaway hit film "Paranormal Activity."

Jason Starr's books haven't ever been on my radar, so I don't know anything about them. Looks like I'll be adding The Follower to my to-read list.

The Golden Suicides

The 'East Village Suicides' or 'Golden Suicides' project that we've mentioned previously has been picked up and has added Gus Van Sant as a writer along with Ellis. Its not entirely clear (to me), but it appears the screenplay will be based on this Vanity Fair article about them. [thanks to James and Marty Beckerman for the heads up]

Related: Ellis working on East Village Suicides screenplay.

Nick McDonell Interview

Marty Beckerman interviews Nick McDonell about his new novel An Expensive Education.

Both of these guys have been given the tag of 'BEE style writers of their generation' when their first novels were released - Generation SLUT for Beckerman and Twelve for McDonell.

Marty Beckerman's newest novel: Dumbocracy
Nick McDonell's newest novel: An Expensive Education

You should also check out Beckerman getting 'spermboarded'.

The Informers Film Hits The UK

The Informers film is being turned loose on Europe now. The reviews are pretty much the same as in the US, although this reviewer gave it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Read What Bret Reads

Via Bret's Twitter feed, I see that he's currently reading Netherland by Joseph O'Neill.

Update: Bret's Twitter page has moved from @eastonellis to @BretEastonEllis.

DVD Release For The Informers

The DVD release of The Informers is scheduled for August 25th.

Extras will include a director and cast commentary, and a Human Intersections: Making The Informers featurette.

Rules of Attraction Character Comes To Life

Its apparently Bret Easton Ellis derivative work week here at Not An Exit. The Handsome Dunce of Camden College Fame is a work in progress purportedly by the guy that was the basis for a character in Rules of Attraction.

Many of the blog entries are audio entries with just a short bit of text. You have to click the entry title to be taken to the page with the mp3 of the audio. The few I listened to were extremely low volume, so be prepared to crank it up. Here's a couple of choice entries to get you started.

My Relationship With Bret Easton Ellis

Photo of Ellis at Camden College

Stalking Bret Easton Ellis

I just ran across Stalking Bret Easton Ellis while on Facebook. I haven't had a chance to read up on it yet. Anybody have info on this? Below is the trailer for the book.

Ellis' Horror Script In Production

An untitled horror screenplay written by Bret is headed into production by Roseblood Movie Company. [thanks Alphonse]

Ellis' story line involves an awkward social outcast who takes hostage a group of peers who humiliated him, with grim results. Brad Furman ("The Take") is set to direct the film.

Bret's On Twitter

You can now follow Bret on Twitter. NY Mag says its real. Not much going on there yet.

Update (2/7/10) : Bret's Twitter page has moved from @eastonellis to @BretEastonEllis.

Worst Film Of The Year?

Uh oh - these aren't the headlines any of us wanted to see. Is The Informers the Worst Film of the Year?

And more reaction from Bret to how the film turned out.

The Informers Opens With $314k

Based on all the poor reviews of The Informers film from the time it hit Sundance, it wasn't much of a surprise that it opened to only $315,000 its opening weekend.

Bret Talks Glitterati, Informers, More

Another interview with Bret, this time at the AV Club. They hit on a bunch of topics, including the American Psycho musical, Glitterati and where he gets his material.

Well, they are autobiographical in the sense that they reflect who I was at a particular moment in my life. There was talk of a memoir, and I realized why I couldn't write a memoir, because the books are the memoir - they completely sum up how I was feeling, what I was thinking about, what my obsessions were, what I was fantasizing about, who I was, in a fictional context over the last 25 years or so. I don't really look at writing as like, "Oh yeah, I went out with Donna and Frank the other night, and she said something really interesting, and God, the way he lit his cigarette was kind of a cool thing. I'm gonna jot that down and put that in the book I'm working on." It just doesn't work that way. I don't know how it works. I don't know why I write what I write. I mean, it's impossible to talk about. I don't know.

AVC: A lot of Rules Of Attraction fans would ask you if Glitterati will ever see the light of day.

BEE: For many legal reasons, it will never see the light of day. You can't really show Glitterati in public, it's not possible. There are a lot of people who would be very upset. I don't even know if they got permission from a lot of the people in it, which might be a big problem, why it's only shown privately.

Roger's obsessed with containment of this. I think it would ruin marriages. [Laughs] I think what they shot is... I think it'll be a long time before they can show this movie. I think Kip Pardue would be okay with it, maybe. But it's basically about 90 minutes of him in character actually seducing women throughout Europe. Much of this was shot late at night, and people didn't care. I just don't know what you could do with it. You can't really show this movie in public.

Thanks to Greg for the heads up on the interview.

Benecio Del Toro As Bret Easton Ellis!?

So, there still isn't a director attached to the film version of Lunar Park, but Bret says that Benecio Del Toro has the inside track on the lead role.

According to Easton Ellis, it was their physical differences that attracted the "Traffic" star to the role. "I think he's interested just because he's rarely offered Anglo parts. I think that's one of the reasons it was very exciting [to him]," explained the writer.

"I don't even think he read the book; I just think he read the script and said 'Oh, this is an Anglo writer and you're not casting a white dude? You've come to me?' And I think that rarely happens for him. I think he's offered a lot of Spanish characters and ethnic types, and I think it's very rare for him to get offered Anglo parts."

I've always thought that if they did it soon, and he lost some weight, Jon Favreau would be a good pick.

Time Out New York

Time Out New York has a short interview with Bret about The Informers film and his upcoming novel, Imperial Bedrooms. They asked a good question about how difficult it was for Bret to put himself back into the proper frame of mind to write about the Less Than Zero characters again.

It was difficult to get back into this guy's voice, even though he's my age. He's in his forties, and it has been 20-some years since the events of that book took place. And now we meet this narrator again at another point in his life. Of course, he's older and wiser and maybe a little bit creepier than he was in the original. It's still essentially the same guy. I had to go back and do a variation on that voice and style of writing. It was a strange position to be in. Can't say it was totally pleasurable, but it was interesting to see how this works.

Thanks to Jack for the heads up on this interview.