Watch the trailer for the Easton Ellis-adapted Informers

We know it's circular reasoning, but the upcoming adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers feels, as they say, like a Bret Easton Ellis novel. That is, it's based in Los Angeles and features a load of characters so destroyed, destructed and debauched that Billy Bob Thornton's lines in its just-released trailer ("It all becomes normal to you. The insanity becomes commonplace") seem central assumptions rather than conclusions to work toward.

The Informers was originally a set of linked short stories by Ellis, published in 1994 between American Psycho (adapted in 2000) and the Zoolander-inspiring Glamorama. As we reported back in March, one story-line from the print version of Informers that involves a vampire who lures clubbing teenagers to their deaths will not see the light of the screen. All scenes involving this character, as well as those involving other supernatural elements of Ellis' writing (like zombies), are apparently absent from the final cut, even though Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) played the part of Jamie, the vampire, during filming.

Along with Thornton and the now-absent Routh, the Gregor Jordan-directed film stars Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Chris Isaak and Brad Renfro, whose part in the Informers was his last role before passing in January.

Ellis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nicholas Jarecki, is also in the middle of helping with Lunar Park, another film adaption of his work that's due early 2009. But /Film points out that Ellis' fingerprints are still all over this one, as the Informers trailer includes New Order’s "Blue Monday" and audio of Ronald Regan lauding religion—followed by shots of drug overdose, wild coitus, physical violence and marital backstabbing. Sounds like Ellis to us.

Just take a look for yourself: