Feyd-Rautha’s Natural Evolution: Austin Butler Poised To Capture Patrick Bateman’s Sociopathic Charm In ‘American Psycho’ Reboot
For reasons known only to the heart of Hollywood, the world is getting a reimagining of America’s dearest psychopath. Luca Guadagnino will direct the new American Psycho remake for Lionsgate, and it is described as a new take on Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel.
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Filling in the legendary raincoat donned by Christian Bale won’t be an easy task, and Austin Butler is the one name popping up whom you might know as portraying another psychopath recently, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.
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The first American Psycho film was released in back 2000, if you can believe it. It instantly split the critics between those who enjoyed it and those who found it too extreme, those who thought it strayed too far from the novel and those who thought it was about as faithful as adaptations get in Hollywood. Nevertheless, the satirical horror has since earned a cult classic status, mostly thanks to Christian Bale’s performance and the film’s critique of a hollow, greed-driven society.
Because the film was done so well, it’s hard not to question whether the world is really in dire need of a new film about Manhattan’s vain psychopath. However, with Luca Guadagnino as the director, and Butler as a potential heir to Bale’s Bateman, there is a bit of hope for the reimagined American Psycho.
For those unfamiliar, Austin Butler’s latest success story is the portrayal of Feyd-Rautha in Dune: Part Two. And in doing so, Butler delivered on every level, portraying the character with enough menace and unpredictability to remove any shred of humanity from the antagonist in Dennis Villeneuve’s take on the epic novel.
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To that end, Butler received rave reviews for his performance as Feyd-Rautha. He turned the character into a likable and charismatic antihero (at least, to my eye), while in true form being a complete psychopath, traits Feyd-Rautha shares with Sean Bateman’s older brother.
If we go deeper into their dark minds, the parallels between these two villains can’t be neglected. Both characters are cold manipulators without any sense of emotional connection to those who they want to control, whether it’s corporate colleagues and social competitors or the people of Arakis.
More importantly, both characters are charismatic and charming in their own ways, which is just a mask for their darker sides – which come out in violent outbursts. While the characters differ significantly when it comes to motivations and backgrounds, the fact is that both are sadistic, violent, narcissistic sociopaths and will stop at nothing to inflict pain on others.
Director Luca Guadagnino is known for films such as Suspiria (another remake of a classic) and Bones and All, which feature some of the most gory moments captured by the film camera. Given Luca’s freedom to explore gore in his films, the upcoming American Psycho film under his helm might include even more disturbing moments from Bret Easton Ellis’ novel than what the 2000 film adaptation delivered. One of these could include cannibalism, a key element in Ellis’ novel, and the one that Guadagnino explored in his previous work as two young cannibals fall for each other in Bones and All.
Guadagnino’s creative vision and Butler’s talent to transform into a many personas clearly offer some hope for the film’s fans, but there is still a lingering fear that the new adaptation might trash the legacy of the original. To that end, we have witnessed numerous remakes and adaptations of The Crow, all of which failed to capture the sullen superhero tone of the original.
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The satire that made the first American Psycho film great could be completely missing in this new take as many modern films tone down the way stories are told to bring in new audiences. With that in mind, presenting Bateman as a mindless serial killer without the critique of materialism can barely justify the film’s existence. Here’s to hoping the film is done right.
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