Ask acclaimed novelist Bret Easton Ellis what “The Informers” is about, and you get nearly a minute of silences, false starts, and heavy exhaling.
“Um…A week in the lives of a group of people in Los Angeles in 1983, focusing mainly on…I guess, a trio of guys…” he eventually attempts, before scampering for a copy of the 1994 novel that serves as the basis for the new film. “Um…I’ve got a paperback of the book here. What does this say? No, that’s not a good synopsis either.”
“You’ve seen it. What do you think it’s about?” the writer of “Less Than Zero” and “American Psycho” finally asks.
Well, on the surface, the film stars Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger and Billy Bob Thornton and tells several stories about a kidnapping, a burnt-out rock star, and a father and son trying to find common ground. But all that fades into the background ultimately, as the film’s atmosphere takes precedence.
“It’s a mood piece, totally,” explains Easton Ellis. “I’ve been involved with it from the very beginning. And so, it was a learning lesson. I learned a lot about moviemaking, a lot about compromise. A lot about the process.”
Now, “Informers” is hitting theaters primarily as the work of “Buffalo Soldiers” director Gregor Jordan – which is particularly strange to Easton Ellis since he’s been living with the film’s sultry, sinful characters for a decade-and-a-half. “The director shot it a certain way, and he made all these choices to drop certain stuff, and focus on this. As a writer, you definitely feel a certain lack of control.”
And so, even though he serves as the film’s main screenwriter and executive producer, Easton Ellis is trying to get more comfortable saying that “Informers” as it hits theaters is principally Jordan’s vision. “It’s a painful process. I’ve seen about a hundred different versions of ‘The Informers,’ once the film was assembled,” he remembers. “But I like the movie, I’ll stand by it.”
“The script that I wrote is not really on the screen,” he explains. “What was weird about watching this movie was that it was based on a book of mine; it’s the first one that I adapted myself. Yet, it’s very different from what I imagined it would be.”
As many actors, directors and writers like to say, a movie is like your child. And sometimes, people see your children a bit differently than you do.
“Yeah, but I don’t want children, I’ve never wanted children,” Easton Ellis said with a laugh. “I don’t compare my books to children.”
Do you think an acclaimed writer like Bret Easton Ellis should get more of a say in how his movies are made? Or do you think authors need to hand over a script, then stay off the set?
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