Bret Easton Ellis isn’t one to adapt stories, he’s often the creative force behind the characters and in some instances, including the awful The Informers (our review), he’s also responsible for adapting his own source material into a script. But a mould is made to be broken and it looks like Ellis is ready to crack that baby wide open with a recent announcement that he will be working with Gus Van Sant on feature film on artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake who committed double suicide in 2007.
The producers acquired a Vanity Fair article written by Nancy Jo Sales in early 2008 which tracks the events leading up to the suicide. The two talented artists were on the rise when they became paranoid that both the government and religious groups (namely the Church of Scientology) were conspiring to bring them down. Theresa died of a drug overdose (brought on by cold medicine and alcohol) and Jeremy died a few weeks later by walking into the ocean in Rockaway Beach, Brooklyn.
It’s a sad story (worth a read) full of romance, love, paranoia and eventual tragic death. It’s interesting that Ellis and Van Sant are collaborating on this scrip. This doesn’t feel at all like an Ellis story though Van Sant clearly knows how to make tragic romances but whether he’ll direct this one is still in the air; at the moment he is only signed on as writer. I’m on the lookout for casting news on the couple which has been dubbed “The Golden Suicides.”
VF is also streaming Theresa Duncan’s short film A History of Glamour which I highly recommend checking out.
If you want to watch it onl1ne for free,...
Comment by Belinda Gomez — October 22, 2009