There's just something about Bret Easton Ellis' work on the big screen that I love -- the desperation mixed with a backdrop of insidiously upbeat '80s music. We've gotten Less Than Zero, American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction, and now The Informers. Word broke in May of 2007 that the interconnected collection of stories was going to be adapted, and now there's a trailer which you can see after the jump (beware of nudity and foul language).

It's the late Brad Renfro's last role, and one that should prove to be much eerier than Heath Ledger's stint as the Joker. It's got thumbsucking Lou Taylor Pucci as an entirely different sort of character, but Billy Bob Thornton steals just about every clip he's in -- and there's also the likes of Amber Heard, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Rhys Ifans, and Brandon Routh.

It looks like it could be just as good as its predecessors, but here's to hoping that the goodness is balanced with the box office this time around. Have you read the book? Do you think this trailer does it justice? And are you excited about the film?

If anyone has made a successful jump from novels to film, it's Bret Easton Ellis. Half of his films have been adapted -- Less Than Zero, American Psycho, and The Rules of Attraction. The other half are either in development or just wrapping production -- The Informers, Glamorama, and Lunar Park. Topping all that off, he's also been writing other scripts. The Frog King, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt is still on the go, and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he'll adapt Michael Hornburg's novel called Downers Grove.

Methinks Mangrove Entertainment, who are financing the project, are looking for some Juno fame of their own. The book focuses on Crystal Methedrine Swanson, a youthful wisecracker with a "relentlessly vernacular teenage voice." But unlike Juno, this flick is darker.

THR describes her as "a paranoid high school senior for whom graduating has become a matter of life or death." That sounds kind of goofy, but her reasoning makes things interesting. She's about to graduate from a school with a "curse" -- someone in the senior class always dies. When some jerks try to rape her, she beats up a jock and starts getting harassed by him and his buddies -- to the lengths that they "strew dead dogs on her lawn." Not surprisingly, this young girl becomes paranoid that she'll be the next senior to die.

There's a long way to go before they get a director and some stars, but I wonder if they can find someone other than Ellen Page to be the snarky, tough teen?

If films could be a success based on the cast alone, I would say that The Informers was on its way to wonderful cinema. News about the project first came in May, and since then, the cast has slowly been coming together in a great, eclectic sort of way. This isn't some sort of Ocean's wonder-project of hunks, but rather a collection of randomness that looks pretty darned tasty -- the first batch had Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Brandon Routh, Ashley Olsen, Jon Foster, Austin Nichols, and Lou Taylor Pucci, and then along came Winona Ryder and Mickey Rourke. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Amber Heard and Chris Isaak have joined the cast.

Heard, who is the object of affection in the upcoming horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, is said to be playing "a sexually promiscuous woman caught up in the decadence of the 1980s." This is pretty much what Ashley Olsen's character description was, so I wonder if she's become the Full House alum's replacement, or perhaps a fellow sexual cohort. As for Isaak, whose last film was John Waters' A Dirty Shame, the crooner will play "a sex-and-alcohol-obsessed father who takes his young son to Hawaii." The film is currently shooting in Los Angeles, and then it will journey to Uruguay and Buenos Aires to finish up.

Adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis' books are like smooth, tasty, cinematic butter. No matter what directorial eye tackles his prose, the unique fire remains, and even improves. First there was Less Than Zero, then came American Psycho, and finally, my favorite, The Rules of Attraction. After drug habits and Huey Lewis-led murder, the stakes were high, and Roger Avary whipped together a music-led dance of destruction. Could anything top that? I'm not sure, but I'm holding out hope that Gregor Jordan makes something great out of The Informers, which Christopher Campbell first posted about in May. Since then, they've started to compile one heck of a cast, and the list just keeps growing.

The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Winona Ryder and Mickey Rourke have joined the eclectic ensemble cast. The film is about seven interconnecting stories in 1980's LA, about a movie executive (Billy Bob Thornton), his wife (Kim Basinger), his mistress, a rock star, a kidnapper, and to strange things up some more, a vampire (Brandon Routh). Ryder is going to be a newscaster who has been dumped by the married producer she's had a long affair with, which I assume means she's Billy Bob's mistress, and Rourke is going to play Peter, a former security guard who wants to kidnap a kid to sell to an LA cult (which should make him the kidnapper). All that's left to fill is the rock star, unless that's being handled by one of the other names on the cast, like John from Cincinnati's Austin Nichols, or Thumbsucker's Lou Taylor Pucci. Production begins in October, so hopefully we'll have more Ellis goodies for you soon.

I'm a big fan of author Bret Easton Ellis' work. Since many of his novels rely on the inner workings of characters' minds, they can be difficult to adapt to the big screen. The film version of Less Than Zero made cocaine addiction look like Pretty in Pink. I know I'm in the minority, but I detested Mary Harron's American Psycho. The only adaptation I feel got Ellis exactly right was Roger Avary's excellent take on The Rules of Attraction. Now three more films are going to try and re-create Ellis' world. Darren Star is working on The Frog King with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There is no director yet, but a movie version of Lunar Park has been announced. And director Gregor Jordan (Ned Kelly) has put together a cast for the film translation of Ellis' 1995 novel The Informers.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, and Superman himself Brandon Routh are in "various stages of negotiation" to star in the ensemble film. The Informers is set in Los Angeles in 1983 and it tracks seven stories. The major characters are: a movie executive (played by Thornton), his wife (Basinger), his mistress, a rock star, a kidnapper, and a vampire (Routh, apparently looking to darken up his image). Rounding out the cast are Ashley Olsen as a "sexually promiscuous girl" (doesn't it seem like those twins are getting a ton of work these days?), Jon Foster (Stay Alive), Austin Nichols (John Monad on the baffling John From Cincinnati), and Lou Taylor Pucci (star of the very good Thumbsucker and the not very good Chumscrubber -- yes, they're different movies). Sounds like it could be a great flick! Now, whatever happened to Roger Avary's planned Glamorama movie? I would love to see that come to light. Did Zoolander steal its thunder?

I'm still disappointed that we will never get to see Glitterati, the semi-spin-off of The Rules of Attraction, which does exist but which writer-director Roger Avary claims will never be released to the public. I still have hope that Avary will eventually get his Glamorama adaptation off the ground -- Kip Pardue deserves the work. But while I wait for Avary to stop writing bad Silent Hill films, I will have to get hyped up for another Bret Easton Ellis adaptation: The Informers. Based on the author's 1995 collection of interrelated vignettes, the film is the first to be adapted by Ellis himself (with help from documentarian Nicholas Jarecki, who was originally set to direct and is also a producer). As can be expected of Ellis' work, the film will follow a number of amoral characters, including a pop star, a Hollywood player and a vampire. The criss-crossing stories are set in Los Angeles in 1983, though it is possible the adaptation -- like Rules -- could be modernized.

The Informers will be directed by Gregor Jordan, who better not let me down. So far, Ellis has been adapted three times and each film's director managed to create a style and tone that -- if not exactly captured the same style and tone of the source -- fit the material brilliantly. Jordan's film Buffalo Soldiers was a decent enough satire of the army during peacetime, but it just wasn't edgy enough for me. The characters in that pic should have been just as despicable as any in an Ellis book. So, therefore I pray the director will push himself a little further this time -- he at least will be working from a script that likely will have Ellis' teethmarks all over it. With that under consideration, I'm not too worried. Sure, Jordan probably won't make as great a film as Avary or Mary Harron (American Psycho) has, and he may not even make a film as notably atmospheric as Marek Kanievska (Less Than Zero) made, but I'm crossing my fingers that it will follow in the footsteps of those mostly underrated, mostly perfect adaptations. I do imagine a worst case scenario, though, which resembles the terrible 80s-set ensemble piece 200 Cigarettes. Other projects involving Ellis that may eventually see the light of the projector include an adaptation of his novel Lunar Park and the author's script for The Frog King.

When I started to read this piece of news, I was shocked. Could Disney have actually picked Joseph Gordon-Levitt to be in the movie about Maddy? After 3rd Rock from the Sun, maybe, but not after Mysterious Skin. While it's a great film, it pretty much solidified the actor as a non-Disney variety. But no, this isn't a literal frog story with warts and ribbits. This is the Adam Davies variety -- a story about publishing and ego that came out of the author's work at Random House.

The Frog King follows Harry, a man of privilege who is farting around in publishing, hating the politics and pretension that surround his work. This inspires him to come in late, spike his coffee and be a general ass -- a mindset that seeps into his relationship with Evie, an editorial assistant. He wants her, but he also wants to cheat on her. The story sounds interesting and reviews seem to agree; however, they also agree that the book came up short. So, if you're making it into a movie and you want to caulk up the plot holes about private advantage, New York City and masculine ego, who do you turn to?

Bret Easton Ellis. The author of American Psycho and Rules of Attraction is penning the adaptation. But that's not all. Darren Star, the creator of shows like 90210 and Sex and the City will make his directorial debut with it. Between Gordon-Levitt and Easton Ellis, this should be a great film -- as long as Star shows some talent behind the camera. At the very least, it should be better than what was originally planned. According to an article here, when the author was tapped to adapt the novel, Joshua Jackson was attached to star. I don't really have anything against Pacey, but he's really no comparison to the star of Brick.

After three of his books (American Psycho, Less than Zero and The Rules of Attraction) were adapted for the big screen, Senator Entertainment is sending another Bret Easton Ellis tale our way. This time, it's The Informers, a collection of loosely-connected short stories which was originally published back in 1995.

Coming onboard to direct is Nicholas Jarecki, who also co-wrote the script with Ellis (which marks the author's first attempt at adapting his own work). Though I've read Less than Zero and The Rules of Attraction, I haven't yet had a chance to check out The Informers. However, Variety says the book "captures a week in L.A. in 1983, featuring movie execs, rock stars, a vampire and other morally challenged characters in adventures laced with sex, drugs and violence." Wow, that's almost a word-for-word description of my morning. Go figure. Pic will begin its production in early 2007.