Gregor Jordan's The Informers: Fast Facts

Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger Star in Disturbing Drama

Apr 19, 2009

Bret Easton Ellis wrote the screenplay for The Informers based on his 1994 book about the outwardly glamorous lives of a group of people in 1980s Los Angeles.

The intertwining characters in The Informers include a perverse rock star, a past-her-prime newscaster, a nervous voyeuristic doorman, an amoral ex-con, a wife on the edge of another nervous breakdown, and lots of young beautiful blond over-indulgers with various tastes, preferences, and addictions living it up in 1983 L.A.

With an ensemble cast including some of the top stars of two generations, The Informers promises to generate lots of interest among viewers of all ages. The two generations depicted in the movie were separated in the story as well as in the actual shooting of the film.

The older group of actors (Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke) shot most of their scenes at different times and in different places than the younger generation (Jon Foster, Amber Heard, Austin Nichols, Lou Taylor Pucci, Theo Rossi, and Brad Renfro in his final role).

Bret Easton Ellis, the author of American Psycho and Less Than Zero, wrote The Informers as a collection of short stories casually linked together by a few recurring characters. The theme of each story, however, is the same: how morally bankrupt adults driven to the excesses of greed, sex, drugs, and corruption influence the generation that follows them.

Nicholas Jarecki, a New York University Film School graduate (then) in his mid-twenties, contacted Ellis about turning his book into a film, and asked him to co-write the screenplay with him. Ellis agreed, in part because he liked Jarecki’s earlier documentary about James Toback and because Jarecki was about the same age as the characters in The Informers.

Ellis and Jarecki pieced together one coherent story from more than a dozen short pieces included in the book. They knew they would keep the setting in L.A., but had to pick and choose each story, character, and scene that would translate into a movie with one main storyline – though the film concentrates more on mood than plot.

Ellis’s latest novel, Lunar Park, is currently being adapted as a film with Benecio Del Toro attached to star.

Filmed mostly in LA, other shooting locations include Desert Center, California, Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Punta del Este, Uruguay.

Australian director Gregor Jordan (now a transplant to L.A.) used Robert Altman’s film Short Cuts as a guide for combining many dark storylines into one compelling drama for a general audience.

Jordan comments on L.A. in the production notes: “I think Los Angeles has many essences, but the one of decadence and immorality is definitely conveyed in the book and film. The movie and music businesses are centered in Los Angeles, and their star systems are just so emblematic of this city. When you populate a city with people who have massive amount of money and fame, combined with weak moral compasses, then decadence and excess is inevitable.”

Out-of-control hedonism fuels an array of characters in 1980s Los Angeles, California.

The copyright of the article Gregor Jordan's The Informers: Fast Facts in Film Dramas Based on Books is owned by Leslie C. Halpern. Permission to republish Gregor Jordan's The Informers: Fast Facts in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.