The busiest director in the biz, Luca Guadagnino, has yet another film in the works, and we just got our first round of casting announcements. The Queer director is adapting another literary classic, American Psycho, and Austin Butler has been announced as the lead.
The role of Wall Street serial killer Patrick Bateman, iconically portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2000 film adaptation, was highly coveted this time around. For a while, Jacob Elordi was reportedly in talks for the role. Given that both Butler and Elordi have portrayed versions of Elvis in recent films, it seems this won’t be the last time the two actors are sparring for the same roles. Cooper Koch (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story) had also thrown his hat in the ring, and honestly, we can see it.
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But Butler came out on top, Variety reports. The screenplay will be written by The Bourne Ultimatum and Contagion writer Scott Z Burns. And along with the casting announcement, we’ve also got sparse details on the upcoming adaptation.
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Rather than a remake of the 2000 film, Guadagnino’s version will be based solely on the original 1991 satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The story follows Patrick Bateman, a successful and self-absorbed investment banker—the embodiment of 1980s “yuppie” (young urban professional) culture.
By day, Bateman goes through the motions of ordinary yuppie life: maintaining his exceptional personal appearance and high-end wardrobe, closing deals in his cigarette-clouded office, navigating an enviable if loveless engagement, partying in nightclubs with his colleagues and snorting cocaine. By night, he commits a series of increasingly gruesome and violent murders, and he gets away with it because—why wouldn’t he?
The novel was controversial upon its release. Depending on who you ask, the novel and subsequent film have both gone on to become cult classics or (along with another violent satire from the era, Fight Club) the favorite film of a certain kind of bro.
We can only guess at the direction of Guadagnino’s take. If we’re looking to films like Call Me By Your Name, Challengers or Queer, we can expect the eroticism dialed up to eleven. If we’re looking to horror genre films like Bones and All and Suspiria, we can expect a deliberate pace culminating in gruesome scenes. Then again, why not both?
As Guadagnino was still in negotiations over the rights to the property as recently as October, production and release are likely a long way off for his version of American Psycho.
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