At last, we have our Luca Guadagnino Patrick Bateman

The casting of Patrick Bateman in Luca Guadagnino’s has been very important to me. Now, we have our new axe killing Wall Street bro who loves Huey Lewis and the News just a little bit too much.

Austin Butler has been cast as Patrick, the 27 year-old business man who has a penchant for 80s hits and murdering the women he sleeps with. Based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name, Guadagnino’s version will brings us a script from Scott Z. Burns and is reportedly a new adaptation of Ellis’ novel. Not a remake of the Mary Harron film from 2000 starring Christian Bale as Bateman.

The news came in exclusive from Variety and we don’t know much else about Guadagnino’s take on the fictional serial killer. This is a story we keep coming back to, each making it a bit more different than the last. Most recently, it was adapted into a musical that debuted on the West End before heading to Broadway for a short period. The Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa musical, with songs by Duncan Sheik, was a bit more faithful to the book versus the Harron film.

That left Broadway in 2016. Since, there have been plenty of reasons to revisit something like American Psycho. Even the movie Hit Man had a reference to Patrick Bateman. So Guadagnino and Burns’ timing for this adaptation is apt.

But now, I have thoughts

Now that the news is out of the way, time for the American Psycho fangirl to speak. On one hand, I love the Harron movie so deeply and sincerely believe that it is a perfect movie. Harron and Guinevere Turner took Ellis’ book that is, at times, unreadable, and turned it into a biting satire. That being said, there are differences between the novel and the film.

Personally, I wish that Burns and Guadagnino would turn to the musical and adapt that instead. We have a perfect look at Patrick Bateman in Turner and Harron’s work. But the musical brings to life a different aspect of the serial killer that I think could be better explored as a film. Especially with Guadagnino behind the lens.

All that being said, Butler’s casting as Patrick Bateman really excites me. Butler has had impressive performances recently, his turn as Elvis Presley in the Baz Luhrmann film Elvis being one of them. But prior to his role as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune: Part II, I wouldn’t have hope for him as Patrick Bateman.

He played Feyd-Rautha in such a way that you were always afraid of his next move, terrified of what he could do. That’s the kind of fear that Patrick Bateman can bring and I think it is going to work incredibly well for the Guadagnino version.

Adapting a more faithful adaptation of the novel does bring in elements that we may want to not see on screen. Namely a horrifying scene with a rat in Patrick Bateman’s apartment. Whatever they end up including though, I wouldn’t mind if they let Patrick Bateman sing a little song. Please? For me?