'American Psycho' Reboot Has Cast Its Patrick Bateman

Nobody asked for a remake of American Psycho, but if it has to happen, then the casting needs to be absolutely perfect. Luckily, it looks like Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming new adaptation of the infamous Bret Easton Ellis novel has found a the best actor for the job. According to Variety, Austin Butler will play titular murder Patrick Bateman in the new American Psycho movie.

Not a true reboot or remake, the new American Psycho promises to be a fresh adaptation of the novel, rather than an attempt to emulate the classic 2000 movie, which was directed by Mary Harron, and famously starred Christian Bale as Bateman. 

Prior to the casting of Austin Butler, it was rumored that Jacob Elordi would be offered the role, following his edgy performance in Saltburn. But after an impressive out ing in Dune: Part Two, Butler appears to have secured the role. This is the guy, who, as Feyd-Rautha in Dune, licked his own knife. Clearly, Butler knows a thing or two about playing psychopaths. 

Originally published in 1991, American Psycho was controversial from the beginning. Ellis’s first publisher, Simon and Schuster, were so nervous about publishing book, that they dropped the project. Later that year, Vintage Books agreed to publish the book, but only as a paperback. Set in the 1980s, Ellis wrote American Psycho as a hyperbolic indictment of yuppie and consumerist culture of that time.

It is unclear if the new script, from Scott Z. Burns will place the action in the 1980s, or another era. But, with the utterly unhinged Austin Butler in the spotlight, this new take is bound to be as entertaining as it is provocative.