Well, we might have just learned why Lionsgate and director Luca Guadagnino haven’t officially named a cast for their upcoming remake of “American Psycho,” as it sounds like they’ve been struggling to lock down a lead actor.
Author Bret Easton Ellis has mentioned some possible hiccups happening behind the scenes on Lionsgate‘s gestating remake (based on his 1991 novel) on his podcast (via Variety) that, without naming talent, some high-profile actors have decided to turn down playing Patrick Bateman, the troubled, wealthy, and violent protagonist. Adding that the script from veteran screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (“Contagion”) has been completely rewritten and is expected to have plenty of differences from the 2000 film by Canadian filmmaker Mary Harron, allowing it to stand on its own.
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“A couple of high-profile actors, whom I can’t name, have turned it down…I think maybe because they don’t want to be in the shoes of Christian Bale…From what I’m told, this movie is completely different from Mary Harron’s 2000 movie. It’s a completely different take, and going to bear no resemblance to that movie, Ellis said on his podcast of the remake pic based on his original novel.
Changing things up isn’t the worst way to go, as the Harron movie is well-liked and led to some confusion about the studio’s attempt to remake it. Their previous outing with the material was the failed sequel “American Psycho 2,” which starred a young Mila Kunis (“Black Swan”); the less said about that one, the better.
While Austin Butler had been linked as possibly being in the mix to play the new version of Bateman, the only real standout campaign we’ve seen is from Patrick Schwarzenegger, who, while being a breakout in last season of Mike White‘s mega-popular series “The White Lotus,” likely isn’t as well-known in the world of cinema for a studio like Lionsgate to sign-off on that kind of casting for the main lead and becoming a marketing draw. Then again, Schwarzenegger might make a great choice for a supporting part like Paul Allen (a role previously played by Jared Leto).
Guadagnino has been busy shooting his OpenAI biopic “Artificial,” and there had been some hints from last year’s CinemaCon appearance that Lionsgate was aiming for the Italian filmmaker to tackle it next. Although they stopped short of naming a lead actor, we may have some insight from Ellis about why that didn’t happen.
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