Daily Dialogue — January 13, 2012
Bateman takes out his wallet and pulls out a card.
PRICE (Suddenly enthused) What’s that, a gram?
BATEMAN New card. What do you think?
McDermott lifts it up and examines the lettering carefully.
McDERMOTT Whoa. Very nice. Take a look.
He hands it to Van Patten.
BATEMAN Picked them up from the printers yesterday
VAN PATTEN Good coloring.
BATEMAN That’s bone. And the lettering is something called Silian Rail.
McDERMOTT (Envious) Silian Rail?
VAN PATTEN It is very cool, Bateman. But that’s nothing.
He pulls a card out of his wallet and slaps it on the table.
VAN PATTEN Look at this.
They all lean forward to inspect it.
PRICE That’s really nice.
Bateman clenches his fists beneath the table, trying to control his anxiety.
VAN PATTEN Eggshell with Romalian type. (Turning to Bateman) What do you think?
BATEMAN (Barely able to breath, his voice a croak) Nice.
PRICE (Holding the card up to the light) Jesus. This is really super. How’d a nitwit like you get so tasteful?
Bateman stares at his own card and then enviously at McDermott’s.
BATEMAN (V.O.) I can’t believe that Price prefers McDermott’s card to mine.
PRICE But wait. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
He holds up his own card.
PRICE Raised lettering, pale nimbus white…
BATEMAN (Choking with anxiety) Impressive. Very nice. Let’s see Paul Owen’s card.
Price pulls a card from an inside coat pocket and holds it up for their inspection: “PAUL OWEN, PIERCE & PIERCE, MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS.” Bateman swallows, speechless. The sound in the room dies down and all we hear is a faint heartbeat as Bateman stares at the magnificent card.
BATEMAN (V.O.) Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark…
His hand shaking, Bateman lifts up the card and stares at it until it fills the screen.
He lets it fall. The SOUND RETURNS TO NORMAL.
CARRUTHERS Is something wrong? Patrick…you’re sweating.
— Price (Justin Theroux), Bateman (Christian Bale), McDermott (Josh Lucas), Carruthers (Matt Ross), American Psycho (2000), screenplay by Mary Harron & Guinevere Turner, based on a novel by Brett Easton Ellis
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is card games, suggested by David Proenza. Today’s suggestion by Atlanta.
Trivia: After the novel was originally optioned in 1991, author Bret Easton Ellis himself was set to write the script for director Stuart Gordon with Johnny Depp starring as Patrick Bateman. Gordon wanted to do the film in black and white and stick as close to the book as possible, meaning a guaranteed X-rating. After the project fell through, David Cronenberg replaced Gordon, with Brad Pitt set to star. This project also failed to get off the ground.
Dialogue On Dialogue: A nice bit of business with a seemingly innocent spin on a ‘card game’ only to have it tie directly back into the plot with the twist at the end.
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