Luca Guadagnino (Bones and All, Suspiria) has been on board to direct a new interpretation of the 1991 book American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis for a while now, with Austin Butler at one point rumored to be playing Patrick Bateman in Guadagnino’s tale. More recently, a rumor hit the net that the film would be gender-swapped, with Margot Robbie as Bateman.
But Austin Butler definitely hasn’t signed on the dotted line and a new report from Deadline this week assures that the Margot Robbie rumors are at this point completely unfounded.
Deadline reports this afternoon, “We’re told by sources close to the project that Luca Guadagnino‘s American Psycho reinterpretation won’t be gender-swapped.”
The outlet also notes, “Austin Butler and Jacob Elordi have both been rumored online in that time, but nothing has been set so far and casting discussions continue.”
Scott Z. Burns is writing the screenplay for the Lionsgate movie from Guadagnino, which is said to be a new adaptation of Ellis’s novel and not a remake of the 2000 film.
In the story, “A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale in the 2000 movie), hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.”
It’s interesting to note that the 2002 direct-to-video movie American Psycho 2 actually did feature a female killer, with Mila Kunis playing a criminology student named Rachael Newman.
Christian Bale in ‘American Psycho’