Austin Butler Will Star in the American Psycho Remake
Christian Bale’s replacement has been found. In October, Lionsgate announced that they would be remaking the 2000 modern classic American Psycho. Based on Brett Easton Ellis’ novel, American Psycho starred Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street executive who spent his days pontificating about how everyone around him was inferior to him and his knights murdering people. The remake – sorry, “new adaptation of the book,” as if that means anything – will be directed by Luca Guadagnino, the filmmaker behind this year’s Challengers and Queer, as well as Call Me By Your Name, I Am Love, and the Suspiria remake. Since the announcement, people have been wondering (in addition to “When will this film era finally end?”) who could possibly follow Bale’s outstanding, career-making performance as Patrick Bateman. Now, Variety exclusively has the answer: Austin Butler will play the personification of the 80s’ dark underbelly. The American Psycho remake has no production or release schedule yet.
I’m not too well-versed in Austin Butler’s career. I liked him in Dune: Part Two, where he played Feyd-Rautha, the psychotic nemesis of hero Paul Atreides. He was also good as Tex Watson, one of the Manson Family murderers of Sharon Tate (or he would’ve been were it not for Cliff Booth, Rick Dalton, and a well-trained pit bull), in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (speaking of modern classics). He was in Yoga Hosers, too, but the part of my brain responsible for self-preservation has forced most of my memories of that film into oblivion. In those other two movies, he played two very different villains, both of whom are also different from Patrick Bateman. I guess Feyd-Rautha comes closer to Bateman with his propensity for violence and willingness to indulge his lust. But neither has the charm or smarminess that Bateman has; I wonder if his performance as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis would be closer to Bateman, at least in that department. Funnily enough, another actor who recently played Elvis – Jacob Elordi, who portrayed the King in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla – was also up for the role, but lost it to Butler. I’m even less familiar with Elordi than I am with Butler, but looking at pictures of him, I can see why he was considered as Christian Bale’s successor; maybe they went another way because he looked a little too much like his predecessor for a role that will already be compared to Bale’s portrayal, almost certainly unfavorably.
And that’s the long and short of it. I have nothing against either of these actors, and I’ve liked Austin Butler the couple of times I’ve seen him. But Christian Bale is iconic as Patrick Bateman and American Psycho is so beloved and held in such high esteem in seemingly every circle that remaking it feels like a big mistake. Remember when Steven Spielberg remade West Side Story, and nobody watched it? Luca Guadagnino is no Steven Spielberg in terms of drawing an audience (although to be fair, Steven Spielberg is no Steven Spielberg anymore, either, but you get my point). Moreover, Austin Butler, though his star is on the rise, is no Christian Bale, and while Bale was mostly unknown at the time, too, he was our introduction to Patrick Bateman. This was an actor creating a character for the screen, not following in someone else’s footsteps. Why not try to adapt one of Brett Easton Ellis’ other works instead? In 2010, he wrote a sequel to Less Than Zero, which was turned into a movie in the 80s, called Imperial Bedrooms; they could get Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Gertz, and Andrew McCarthy back together for an adaptation of that, although I think they’d have to make everyone a little older in the movie. But, of course, I know the real reason: American Psycho is popular, Hollywood is afraid of new things, and it has to be remade. Good luck.
Let us know what you think of Austin Butler playing Patrick Bateman in the American Psycho remake in the comments!
***
If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
Get Your Geeks + Gamers merch here!
Comments (2)
There are a few movies of his I’d like to see, particularly Bikeriders. I’ll get to Elvis sooner or later as well.
Very first time I saw him was in The Shannara Chronicles. I thought he looked to boyish, but I saw him doing training for Dune Part 2 and he just knows how to work the camera. Him and Zendaya grew up in the same kind of farm system, but I think that Elvis really changed him. I never saw Masters of The Air, but slowly, I think Butler is becoming the actor of our times. Maybe he should do something with Miles Teller and Glenn Powell, but I think whoever is managing Austin has guided his career slowly and it seems to be working. He just has it. He’s very confident and comfortable in front of the camera and seems to be slick about it.
Agree about Bale, that I don’t think his performance can be duplicated, but I’ve underestimated Austin Butler in everything, and he always comes off better than I expected, mainly, because maybe at one time, I just thought was like the next DeCaprio. One thing I’ll say, is that Austin comes off like much more of an actual movie star than, like a Chris Evans or someone like that. He can do those esoteric roles.