Arty Froushan Twenty-One Times

I think I know my audience. And my audience consists of the kind of people who are screaming "Make out!" at Arty Froushan and Charlie Cox whenever their characters share the screen on Daredevil: Born Again. I know all of this because it's exactly like that old T.V. commercial for the Hair Club For Men -- I'm not just the President of the "Screaming 'Make out!' at Arty Froushan and Charlie Cox whenever their characters share the screen on Daredevil: Born Again" Club, I am also very much a member. King of the members!

Anyway with the triple hit on my sensibilities that Arty's landed this past year -- a faggy fop in the last Downton movie, a terrifying sociopath on Daredevil, and Patrick f'ing Bateman in my beloved American Psycho: The Musical (unfortunately only in the U.K., so far) -- it's no surprise I'm quickly finding myself entrenched in the obsessed camp. And these exrtemely cheerful and adorkable photos (very Pushing Daisies!) for Bean Magazine  are only cementing that. You can read the interview at that last link, but if you just want to get oglin' you can hit the jump...

Good Morning, World

Considering how much posting I did when Benjamin Walker starred in the American Psycho musical on Broadway (to date the only time I've gone to see a Broadway show three times!) you'd think I'd have posted about Daredevil and Downton Abbey actor Arty Froushan's run by now -- I guess since it was in the U.K I will cut myself some slack, but still. Every time Arty has popped up on this season of Daredevil I felt a twinge -- well okay several competing twinges -- that I didn't get to see him give us his Patrick Bateman best on stage. SIGH. That show has now ended its run but -- and I can't believe I haven't posted about this news yet either! -- it will be staged here in New York again in 2027! It's not going to Broadway -- it's happening at some venue in Brooklyn that I am unfamiliar with but that thrills me because I can hopefully afford to go see it repeatedly again then! I have my doubts that the U.K. cast will carry over, but they can feel free to prove me wrong! I'd love to see Arty in the (bloodied) flesh. Anyway I've only posted about Arty a couple of times here on the site (see here) but I will hopefully get lots more chances to revisit the subject of him -- and he was kind enough to share some swoon-worthy behind-the-scenes photos from the show on his Instagram, which I in turn have thoughtfully curated for you (with some bonus shots because duh) after the jump...

Did You Know I'm Utterly Insane

Luca! Have I not supported you? Have I not praised you far and wide? Well I don't know what I have done to make Luca Guadagnino unhappy and spiteful but I feel personally attacked twice in a row now with this American Psycho remake that he's planning on making -- first with the fact that he's doing it at all since Mary Harron's 2000 film with Christian Bale is literally perfect; one of my favorite movies, period. And now comes the word (thx Mac) that he's getting one of my least favorite It Boys of the moment Austin Butler to star in it? Luca, baby, why? I've found almost everything Butler has done in the past several years of making a name for himself to be phony and try-hard -- no matter the praise they received his Elvis and his turn in Dune Part Two were both flops as far as I'm concerned. Flops! Credit where credit's due -- he was fine playing a pretty boy poseur in The Bikeriders and I liked how Quentin Tarantino used him as a blowhard in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood...

... but I'd say it's his Dune work that landed him this gig and I have no idea what anyone sees in that performance. I find it laughable. I re-watched the movie last week and I still find it laughable. He has no presence in it -- he's the least scary villain since Jared Leto dyed his hair green. I will admit that there's something to be said here about Luca casting someone who reads as a total void to me as Patrick Bateman, the ultimate void. Lord knows I owe Mr. Guadagnino the benefit of the doubt at this point! His remake of Suspiria -- another film that never should have worked but managed to become one of my favorite horror films of all time -- proved my anti-remake mindset before that to be mostly foolish. But going into that I loved all oif the actors he'd hired, and that is just not going to be the case with this if this ends up happening. When I posted the remake's announcement in October I just figured this'd go onto the director's extensive never-happening heap of projects, but this casting news makes it seem like it is really happening. Granted Ellis' book and Harron's movie are very different, and having a gay man approach the material will probably give it a different hook. Also there is the real-world angle of our political reality to mine -- the poison of the 1980s New York Finance Bro misogyny mind-set which has had some, you know, consequences. I don't know. I don't know, dammit! Why can't Luca just be nice to me?

Franz Rogowski Eleven Times

If you'd have asked me last week if we'd be getting Bird star Franz Rogowski cosplaying as a Wall Street douchebag for the cover of the Financial Times magazine this week I'd have said, "You know what? The election is happening next week so it's entirely possible we might pop out the ass-end of a worm-hole and I am keeping all of my options open." So here's another weird sign o' the times -- exactly that has happened. The Rogowski thing, not the worm-hole thing, although who can even tell? 

Anyway seeing Franz dressed up this way has me picturing him playing Patrick Bateman in the American Psycho remake that Luca Guadagnino is supposedly working on (honestly I'll eat my shoe if that film really happens) and... well it would certainly shake that project up. It would be a totally different take than Mary Harron's was! Oh who are we kidding -- Franz would knock it out of the park. He always does. It would be a bold choice though! Hit the jump for the entire photoshoot... 

Luca Guadagnino's American Psycho Wait What

I fully changed my attitude toward "remakes" thanks to Luca Guadagnino's 2018 master-class on how to do them right called Suspiria -- I've always been a big fan of Dario Argento's original and I thought a remake was a terrible idea, and then Luca's version came out and he slapped my fucking mouth shut to the point where I now refuse to baldly criticize them on first glance. If an artist is willing to do something as different and interesting with the material as he did there, then by all means let the remakes happen! 

And yet! Luca himself has come to test me today! Because Deadline is reporting that Luca himself is working on remaking one of my absolute favorite movies of all time, one I love way more than I ever loved the original Suspiria -- specifically he's thinking about making a new adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho, which I am sure you are all aware Mary Harron turned into a horror comedy masterpiece in the year 2000 with Christian Bale. For god's sake I just posted a gif from that movie less than 24 hours ago!

The thing is -- American Psycho the film works so well exactly because of who made the thing. The team of Mary Harron and screenwriter Guinevere Turner gutted the book's POV and made the character of Patrick Bateman into a much deserved punchline. It's much more of a comedy than it is a horror film, althought the terror of toxic masculinity is very real and felt palpably throughout. 

And I have no doubt that Luca gets all of that -- Steven Soderbergh's favorite screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who Deadline says is working on the new script, I'm far more dubious about. Which isn't to say I haven't liked many of Burns' scripts -- he wrote The Informant! for god's sake. But perspective is everything, especially with material this questionable, and it'd be very very very easy to slide off the mark with this. It's honestly a miracle that Harron's movie got made and ended up the way it did -- one I wonder at anew every time I think about the movie. Which is quite often here 20+ years on!

And I say all of this with Luca's new film Queer very much at the front of my brain -- I reviewed that yesterday and it's as good as anything Luca has ever made. The man is killing it right now. I should not doubt in Luca. He's proven that time and time again. And the man can direct some horror! And I should also keep in mind that Luca attaches his name to a thousand projects that never get made, so maybe this will go the way of his Brideshead Revisited or his Lord of the Flies movies. Or maybe he'll make a movie of the musical! I love the American Psycho musical!

I am just... listen, in the Deadline article the head of Lionsgate is quoted saying they're thrilled to have a filmmaker like Luca coming on board this "potent and classic IP" and I know that quoite isn't Luca's fault and he would never put it that way but that dude needs to read the room. "Classic IP" rings all of the alarm bells of terror. So..... thoughts???? Help me out here, people. I am bewildered. 

Today's Mood

13 Toilets of Halloween #12

Hey not every entry in my list of the "13 Toilets of Halloween" has to be gross or scary says me. And so if I want to include the moment in American Psycho where Peak Christian Bale wearing nothing but tighty-whities takes his morning leak while staring at himself reflected in his Les Miz poster I am going to include the moment in American Psycho where Peak Christian Bale wearing nothing but tighty-whities takes his morning leak while staring at himself reflected in his Les Miz poster. My house, my rules! Oh, Patrick....

It's Hip to Be Bale

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Today marks 20 years since Mary Harron's American Psycho slashed and strutted its way onto the stage -- it is, quite plainly, one of my most favorite movies of all time, and so obviously I had to do a to-do about it. And if you click on over to The Film Experience you'll see I did just that and wrote up my thoughts on not one, not two, not three and not four of its performances, but five, five of its performances for my "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series. All those ladies are wonderful, hella worthy additions to my pantheon of The Queens of Scream. That said that was a lot of lady talk, so here on MNPP I will also share these two gifs of Christian Bale... sigh. What a gift this film was. Such boundless riches...

PS here's a terrific new chat with Marry Harron at LWL about the film this week, filled with smart insights from a seriously underappreciated genius on her timeless masterpiece... which is my way of saying it's worth ten minutes of your time. Choice bit:

“Whenever I film a TV show, somebody always comes up and tells me how much they loved American Psycho. I’m surprised by the intensity of people’s reaction to it. People tell me they’ve seen it 30 times – I haven’t even seen it 30 times! It seems to have touched a nerve, and it’s nice that people are still watching it.”

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13 Cakes of Halloween #5

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Today's Cake from our "Scary Cakes!" series isn't actually truly and entirely a "cake" per se. But I always think it's going to be a cake which is close enough because who's the goddamned blogger here? Stop questioning my tactics. Anyway I speak of the legendary opening credits for Mary Harron's 2000 masterpiece American Psycho of course, which seamlessly meld together Patrick Bateman's outlandish foodie tendencies with his outlandishier homicidal ones -- it's basically the entire film in miniature, sans ass.

The first surprise we have watching these credits is that it's not blood we're seeing be vigorously drizzled across a blank white background but rather a delicious looking raspberry sauce. That said I'd say there's a second surprise and that is that the raspberries and the sauce are being dropped onto a hunk of meat. Nope, nothing symbolic about that switcheroo! But people eat raspberry sauce on meat? I mean I'm the person at Thanksgiving who avoids the Cranberry Sauce like it's Frothing Cyanide so perhaps I'm not the person to blog about this, but ewww. No.

That said as the sequence continues the spectacle of cuisine we're privy to gets a little bit more dessert-ish (and I love that giallo-ish black glove) -- I suppose it's obscene to call that meringue swan with strawberry back feathers a "cake" exactly, but this deliciously obscene film calls for such deranged mergers, no? Whatever. Just watch the entire opening sequence below, which is a little slice of heaven itself:

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Good Morning, World

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This morning we're wishing the film director Joel Schumacher a happy 80th birthday with a hint of Jason Patric In Lost Boys Goodness -- if you read that massive, and massively entertaining, interview with Schumacher at Vulture that was making the rounds earlier this week then you probably got the sense that he shared something in common with the rest of us sentient beings during that period which was a healthy crush on Jason Goddamned Patric. A'duh! I wanted to pick a quote from that interview to give "Quote of the Day" treatment but I was having trouble choosing just one -- it's one of those ones for the ages. So click on over and read the whole damn thing. True story: I was once at a party at Bret Easton Ellis' apartment and Schumacher was there! I didn't talk to him though. That's it. That's the story. All of my celeb stories (well, except for the Kevin Williamson one) end the same way. "I saw them across the room but didn't say anything." Funny that Joel didn't bring that up in his interview, isn't it? I'm sure it left a deep impression on him.

I Am Link

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Well I haven't done one of these link round-up posts in ages and ages; they're time-consuming and what with that steady stream of film fests I was caught up in for a couple of months there twasn't meant to be. There's all sorts of news I've missed mentioning, but I'm going to try to keep these links more recent, since one assumes you guys get your news from other places. I know, I know, a nutso assumption, but we'll entertain the thought for today. Here goes...

--- Crazy Rich Christmas - Gorgeous Henry Golding was to the shock of nobody looking gorgeous and exuding charm in Paul Feig's A Simple Favor earlier this year, and so it wasn't a shock when Feig announced he was re-teaming with the Crazy Rich Asians star for his next project, a romantic holiday comedy called Last Christmas that'll have him wooing the elf-pants right off of the mother of dragons herself, Emilia Clarke. Today's news that Henry's CRA co-star and eternal goddess Michelle Yeoh is joining the cast though, that's something to jig fresh over.

--- Divine Interference - I'm heading down to Baltimore myself in a couple of weeks to see the John Waters exhibit that the Baltimore Museum of Art is currently staging, I'll surely report back on that once I do, but if you'd rather hear what John Waters himself has to say on it well I suppose you could click right here for a chat with him in the Washington Post. (thx Mac)

--- Bateman Below - As if the Muriel's Wedding musical wasn't enough to already have me contemplating throwing out my thumb to catch a ride Down Under now the entire continent of Australia is really going out of its way to make me crazy, musical-style - they're staging my beloved American Psycho musical in Sydney in the spring. The only show I've ever gone to see thrice! I don't know who Ben Gerrard is, I guess he's a well-known personality down there, but it's a shame they couldn't coax Benjamin Walker out of whatever hole Meryl Streep tossed him into after he abandoned that Gummer.

--- The Next Killer - Have you guys watched Cam on Netflix yet? The "cam girl" horror movie starring Madeline Brewer from The Handmaid's Tale? Here's my review in case you need convincing - the movie is very smart and fine and I recommend it. Well writer Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber, the team behind the film, just let slip that they're teaming back up to make another horror flick next - it's a "semi-autobiographical" female-led serial-killer flick. Mazzei also reassures that the "semi" means she is not a serial killer, so that's good. In related here's a chat with Madeline Brewer about Cam.

--- Follow That Bird - Being so busy the past week I've fallen an episode behind on Park Chan-wook's miniseries The Little Drummer Girl, but if you've happened to be on Twitter while I am watching an episode then you know I am mad about what I have seen so far - it's gorgeous stuff. And happily the Atlantic got to chat with PCW about the visual style, particularly the show's vibrant color palette, you can read it all right here. I'm holding off on reading the article til the show's done myself though, since I don't want to color, har har, the experience of watching the show as it unfolds.

--- Twits Ahead - Every time a new Roald Dahl adaptation has come up over the years, and there have been many, I've always whined about the one story of his that nobody was adapting, his 1980 book The Twits, which was a childhood fave. It's an over-the-top goofy and brief book so whining aside I've always mostly understood why nobody's bothered. But now comes word that Netflix is making "an exclusive new and first-of-its-kind slate of original animated event series and specials" based on all of Dahl's works - basically it sounds like they're doing for Dahl what Castle Rock did for Stephen King and creating a "shared universe." So I expect me some Twits!

--- And Finally a new trailer for Patty Jenkins' miniseries I Am the Night with her Wonder Woman leading man Chris Pine popped up earlier this week - we shared the first look at the show back in June right here; this is about the Black Dahlia killing in Los Angeles in 1949. The series premieres at the tail-end of January. Watch:
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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)

Paul Morrissey: You call this a groovy light show. I'd rather sit and watch the clothes dryer at the Laundromat. Oh, look. It changed color. Where's a love child? They'll get a kick outta this. Only a hippie would find this even remotely interesting, but I'll tell ya. You spend one day with the hippies, and you realize how truly refreshing and unpretentious, hard core, New York degenerates are.

I really need to re-watch this movie, I haven't seen it in such a very long time. A happy birthday to director Mary Harron today! I am going out of my way to not quote Mary Harron's Masterpiece American Psycho obviously, because that's usually my go-to, but the woman has got a stellar filmography top to bottom... even if the race from the top to the bottom of it is far too brief. Did we all watch Alias Grace by now? Thoughts? And thoughts besides, "I want to bend Edward Holcroft over a barrel" I mean...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

American Psycho (2000)

Patrick: Come on, Bryce. There are a lot more

important problems than Sri Lanka to worry about.

Timothy: Like what? 

Patrick: Well, we have to end apartheid for one. And slow

down the nuclear arms race, stop terrorism and world hunger. 

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, 

and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, 

while also promoting equal rights for women. We have 

to encourage a return to traditional moral values. 

Most importantly, we have to promote general 

social concern and less materialism in young people.

Luis: [feigning tears] Patrick. How thought-provoking.

I have learned two things tangentially related to American Psycho in the past week, when I really thought I knew all there was to know tangentially or -non-tangentially related to American Psycho. Firstly our good friend Nathaniel asked on Twitter for everybody to name their five favorite movies from Out Gay Film-makers, and...

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Thing I learned crafting this tweet - Mary Harron is not a lesbian? Here I have thought she was a lesbian all this time

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 30, 2017

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I was seriously surprised to read that Harron is married (to a man) and has two daughters. I have no idea why I thought she was gay in the first place, but thinking of American Psycho as having been reimagined from a gay man's perspective (Bret Easton Ellis) to a lesbian's was part and parcel of how I had been reading the film all these years - I had been placing a sort of an ironic detachment onto its worship of the male form...

... (I mean I can't mention "the male form" in reference to Patrick Bateman and not show what I'm talking about, right?) that wasn't there if Harron is a heterosexual woman. Or maybe it's there as a way to simply subvert the male gaze we're so used to, but I really thought the film had been made by someone who had zero interest slash attraction to the form she was putting on display. Now I have to rework all my thinking about that. 

The other thing I learned about America Psycho, which is far less substantial but actually the reason we're even posting about the film today, is that I never knew that the actor that played Luis Carruthers was the one and same Matt Ross that is now known as a movie director - he directed Captain Fantastic with Viggo Mortensen!

Who knew?!? Anyway Ross is celebrating 

his 48th birthday today, so a happy one to him. 

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Happy Halloween

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Did you know I’m utterly insane?

A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Oct 31, 2017 at 4:46pm PDT

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Tell me what scary movies you're watching in the comments!

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

American Psycho (2000)

Jean: What's that? 

Patrick: Duct tape. I need it for... 

taping something. 

 A very happy birthday to Mary Harron today,

who saw all of this coming 16 years ago.

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Who Wore It Best?

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Today is the birthday of two pretty different and yet both, in their own ways, sexy as heck actors -- Chris Pratt, goofball turned beefcake, is turning 37, while Benjamin Walker, sleek Broadway psychopath, is turning 34.

And while it's true that Ben's become the yardstick (12 inches to a yard have ya soundin' like...) by which I measure any man in tighty-whities (sidenote: yes I realize Chris is technically in boxer-briefs; let's not hang ourselves up here) I just couldn't resist it again...

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Good Morning, Psychos

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Dunno if you guys heard or not but over the long weekend it was announced that this week would be American Psycho: The Musical's last week open - they're closing on Sunday, I guess the show wasn't doing well, because people are terrible and spend their money on garbage, when they had caviar - sexy bloody caviar in just tighty-whities - right there for the taking. Boo, everyone but me, boo!

(pic via) Anyway seeing as how this might be my last opportunity I've gathered up some photos from behind-the-scenes, during-the-scenes, off-the-scenes, from all over the place. Click our Ben Walker tag for lots of earlier posted stuff. Oh and this:

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Via this Tumblr comes that video, bless their sneaky devilish hearts. Oh and one more thing -- if you have Twitter, go retweet this tweet! I can't believe there's a possibility we might never get this recording - I want! My favorite song has yet to be released.
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LIKE AND RETWEET THIS IF YOU WANT A @APtheMusical BROADWAY CAST RECORDING!!!!! pic.twitter.com/JljxcCa7RK

— American Psycho Fans (@APbwayfans) May 31, 2016

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Now slap on your Walkman, tune it to Huey Lewis, 

and let's get hip to be square after the jump...

Slash & Dance Man

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I'm guessing that Benjamin Walker will put some extra oomph into his strangling and slashing at tonight's show -- I mean congratulations to the folks who made the American Psycho musical for their two Tony nominations this morning, but I'd argue that clearly it deserved more, especially love for Walker's killer (SEE WHAT I DID THERE) performance. That said I haven't seen enough on stage to pretend I know anything, so don't listen to me. I'm not surprised that the show's been love-it-hate-it, because it's that kinda material. But obviously, given my endless posting, I'm of the former sort. 

I mean I'm tweeting to the world questions about when the Broadway version will get a Cast Recording released -- obviously I've gone wacky for it. For the record my favorite part of the show (favorite part unrelated to "Benjamin Walker in bloodied tighty-whities" natch) is the song right after the Intermission called "Killing Spree" which is indeed heavily reliant upon staging and lighting, which are the two Tony noms the show earned, so that makes sense to me. 

But it is a scene that captures what a musical version of American Psycho should be so, so perfectly - with its raving pulsing slashing throbbing hyper-stylized nightmare sexiness - that I really hope it's the one they get to perform on the Tonys. And you know I mean it because Ben's fully dressed for it and I still want them to perform that number. That's as crazy as a killing spree itself!

Good Morning, Patrick

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I'm sure if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter or anywhere within a five to five billion mile radius you probably saw that I saw the American Psycho musical a second time yesterday - I was enthusiastic! I am enthusiastic. I decided about halfway through this time that I probably would be fine going to see this show every night for its entire run. It... settles me. As Patrick says. I actually sat in the front row this time around and man was that an experience. Benjamin Walker's tighty-whities were so close I could reach out and grab them. (I did not.) (sigh.)

Anyway after the show I went looking through the show's official Instagram account, which I don't think existed the first time I saw the show when it was in previews and sure enough, gold. There are several hot dudes (and ladies, if you're into ladies) in the show that you can see at that link behind the scenes of this sexy scary show, but we're just gonna post all the Benjamin Walker pictures because he looked right into my eyes yesterday as he "murdered" someone while covered in blood in just those underwear... and it's totally love. Hit the jump for a few more...

Benjamin Walker Eight Times

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Big Bad Ben's filling out some suits for a photo-shoot in the new issue of Esquire magazine (shot by photographer Stewart Shining) and we can't help but share (thanks Mac). There's also an interview if words are your bag, but with pictures like these...
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 ... there are better uses for our tongues, people. Anyway the American Psycho musical finally opened this weekend (I saw it in previews way back seems like forever now) and the reviews look nearly as good as Ben looks in his underwear! They should be good, anyway - it's a fun show. I mean I'm obviously going to go a second time, which is basically unheard of when it comes to musical theater (but we all know it's not the music I'm going for). And speaking of staring at Big Ben, hit the jump for six more pictures...
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