Austin Butler to lead Luca Guadagnino’s ‘American Psycho’

Austin Butler is reportedly set to play Patrick Bateman in Luca Guadagnino‘s upcoming American Psycho film.

Per a Variety report, Butler has been tapped to play the iconic serial killer, taking over the role from Christian Bale. Butler will lead Challengers director Guadagnino’s new take on American Psycho, which won’t be a remake of the beloved 2000 film, but will be a new interpretation of Easton Ellis’ novel.

Variety‘s report also suggests that Euphoria and Priscilla star Jacob Elordi was in the front-running for the role, which eventually went to Butler. This isn’t the first time Butler and Elordi have vied for the same or similar roles – both men portrayed different versions of Elvis Presley in recent years; Butler starred in Elvis, while Elordi starred in Priscilla.

Guadagnino’s upcoming take on American Psycho was first announced in October. It marks the filmmaker’s second foray into genre remakes, having previously directed a new version of Suspiria in 2018, based on Dario Argento’s 1977 Italian supernatural horror.

Following the film’s announcement, the internet championed Robert Pattinson for the role of Bateman, though it appears nothing amounted from the fan-cast.

The original film starred Christian Bale as Patrick Batman, a mentally unstable Manhattan-based banker who lives a second life as a gruesome serial killer. In both the film and novel, it’s not made entirely clear if Bateman is actually perpetrating the acts of horrific violence, or if they are a figment of his imagination, and this has been the subject of debate among fans for decades.

Earlier this year, American Psycho actress Chloë Sevigny said she was “really intimidated” by Bale’s acting process while working on the film. The actress said she tried to “respect [Bale’s] process” but found it “challenging because I’m very gregarious and silly and goofy, unbeknownst to the general public.”

“When people take themselves so seriously, I kind of shut down, even though I take my work very seriously and I love acting and whatnot,” she continued. “I was really intimidated by his process and intimidated by him, and I wanted a little more generosity to make myself feel more at ease, which is my own ego.

Christian Bale on the set of ‘American Psycho’. Credit: Eric Robert/Sygma via Getty Images

“It was a really challenging dynamic for me, but I don’t think that I thought he was bad,” she added. “I was just kind of confused, like, ‘Why aren’t you being social?’ I wasn’t even that aware of what the Method thing was. I never had any formal training; I think I was just kind of ‘fake it until you make it.’ But the whole Method thing, I was like, What even is this approach? It was very intimidating.”

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