Loneliness just got an update patch.
Paul Schrader is staring into the void again, this time, a digital one.
The Taxi Driver screenwriter has floated a surreal sequel idea where Travis Bickle, cinema’s most infamous lonely man, gets an AI girlfriend.
The concept emerged from a Facebook post in which Schrader detailed his own disappointing experiment with an online AI companion.
“What a disappointment,” he wrote, noting how the bot fell into “evasive patterns” and eventually terminated the conversation.
When a commenter joked that the best sequel would involve Travis scaring away his AI girlfriend, then resetting and offending her again, Schrader simply replied: “I like it.”
While no studio is attached, the notion offers a bleakly funny update on Bickle’s unravelling psyche in the age of algorithms.
Schrader, who also penned Raging Bull and directed First Reformed, remains as provocative as ever.
Whether Travis would ask his AI “You talkin’ to me?”, or just get ghosted by code, remains unanswered.
