Austin Butler America’s Psycho
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Butler’s psycho, Ferrell’s gator, and Sundance.
Let’s go!
Austin Butler is an American Psycho.
He is in talks to play Patrick Bateman in Luca Guadagnino's (Dir: Queer Challengers, Call Me By Your Name) new film from the source novel American Psycho (Author: Bret Easton Ellis).
This is, of course, the character that Christian Bale originated in the 2000 film: a whacked-out, homicidal Wall Street banker with a big body count.
So how does Butler, who has made a career playing a string of “cool guys” ranging from his early days in Kevin Smith’s Yoga Hosers (2016) and Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) to Elvis (2022) and Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air (2024) transform into a deranged killer?
Look no further than his villainous role in Dune 2. Butler played a sinister shaved-head sociopath (still), which director Denis Villenvue said was:
“Something that would be a cross between a psychotic, sociopath serial killer and Mick Jagger.”
Butler has an uncanny ability to reshape himself for whatever role he needs—building himself anew from the ground up. He just has to be given the right character.
Butler’s Bateman could emphasize a calculated detachment—an image of composed, almost robotic perfection that masks explosive, primal violence. Unlike Bale’s more erratic portrayal, Butler might lean into a Bateman whose terrifying extremes emerge not from emotional instability but from a calculated detachment, making his acts of violence feel disturbingly methodical and inevitable.
Whatever his interpretation, separating his performance from Bale’s original will be a tall task.
Scott Z. Burns (Side Effects, Contagion) is writing the script. Lionsgate will distribute. No shoot/release dates have been set.
For More:
American Psycho (2000) trailer.
Austin Butler Dune 2 Kiss or Die clip
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Trailer for the upcoming Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon wedding comedy You’re Cordially Invited, directed by Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors). Headed to streaming on Prime.
Walt Disney Studios is developing Becoming Houdini, a spy thriller about the life of legendary escape artist Harry Houdini.
J.J. Abrams just closed another TV and film deal with Warner Brothers, but it has been cut in half compared to his previous $500 M dollar deal in 2006.
Disney is making a live-action version of the silly 2010 animated musical film Tangled.
Screenwriter David Auburn (The Lake House) has been hired to adapt Another Round, the Chris Rock (dir) adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg's Danish-language film Another Round (2020).
Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) and Nick Santora (Reacher) will adapt John Grisham's Playing for Pizza for Skydance Sports.
The Oscars are streaming live streaming on Hulu.
The Friday Night Lights reboot lands at Peacock. The series is in the works of original series creator Peter Berg, showrunner Jason Katims, and EP Brian Grazer.
It is now confirmed that Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney in the four upcoming Beatles biopics directed by Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty) and released in 2027 by Sony.
David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants partners with Samsung TV Plus for a FAST channel, Letterman TV.
Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne is the newest actor to join Warner Bros. Panic Carefully, a paranoid thriller feature from director/screenwriter Sam Esmail (Leave the World Behind).
Jared Leto is in final talks to join an A-list ensemble for Barry Levinson's Assassination.
Full breakdown of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival program lineup here.
Screenplays for Dune 2 and All We Imagine As Light here.
Morgan Neville, the director of 20 Feet from Stardom (2013) and Piece By Piece (2024), is directing a BTS documentary on SNL premiering on Peacock next month.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Will Ferrell will star as a father of a bride in the upcoming wedding comedy You’re Cordially Invited), directed by Nicholas Stoller (dir: Neighbors) and for Amazon MGM Studios.
Here’s the synopsis:
Follows a woman (Reese Witherspoon) who is planning her sister's wedding and the father of another bride-to-be. They discover that they are double-booked for their destination wedding, so both parties decide to share the venue, but chaos and disaster await.
Stoller has worked previously on some great comedies, everyone's favorite break-up catharsis Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the surprisingly funny frat revenge comedy Neighbors:
You’re Cordially Invited is a great easy-on-the-brain comedy that takes us back to simpler times… plus it has alligators in the trailer. Release date Jan 30th. Straight to streaming on Prime.
Walt Disney Studios is developing Becoming Houdini, a spy thriller about the life of legendary escape artist Harry Houdini. The film will explore Houdini's early years as Erik Weisz and his rumored undercover work for Britain and America. The screenplay will be written by Michael Finch and Alex Litvak, known for John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Three Musketeers. The mythos of Houdini seem ripe for adaptation, but surprisingly, until recently, the last film was from 1954; however, in 2014, the History Channel had a short series, Houdini, starring Adrien Brody - trailer here. Other than the producers Scott Sanders and Danny Strong, among a smattering of others, we don't have too much information on production or casting, but a magician never reveals his tricks right away. We will keep an eye out.
Abrams Class of 2022: J.J. Abrams just closed another TV and film deal with Warner Brothers, but it has been cut in half compared to his previous $500 M dollar deal in 2006. It's plain to see times are changing for Bad Robot, and it looks like this is the death rattle of the Mega Deal. JJ got him, and the landscape will forever shift. However, it turns out Abrams had a bit more influence in that decision, part of that falling on Bad Robot's desire to incubate new talent and creatives, with less than stellar results.
Though he started out as the man behind Lost and Felicity, Abrams was successful in his own right, and his friends were not as successful. With noble intentions for Bad Robot to act as a mini studio with autonomy, many of the deals made in proxy during the original deal fell through or underperformed.
Angela Robinson led - Madame X canceled in 2022.
Dustin Thompson's Overlook, a spin-off of The Shining, never went into production.
Jessie Nelson, Little Voice, got one season on Apple + before being canceled.
Duster, an FBI procedural by LaToya Morgan, had a greenlight in 2020, but after an arduous development, it will finally arrive on HBO 2025.
Not to completely dogpile on Abrams, but his recent blunders with Star Wars and, to a lesser extent, Star Trek dulled out his star personally too; while he repairs his own image, it's fair to assume he is playing from a lower field than he was previously in the early 2000's he was a top 5 director. Now, we see him with a slightly tighter leash. Backed into a corner a bit, it's interesting to see what will come out of this deal, but for everyone else, the damage is done. We probably won't see too many mega deals anytime soon.
Rapunzel is the newest Disney princess to get the live-action treatment!
Based on the silly 2010 animated musical film Tangled, the longtime rumored feature will reportedly be directed by The Greatest Showman (2017) filmmaker Michael Gracey. The script is penned by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, whose credits include Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Netflix’s camp comedy Do Revenge (2022).
Disney’s take on the classic Brothers Grimm tale told the story of a young long-haired princess (voiced by Mandy Moore) locked in a tower with the new additions of some fun side characters like her adorably sassy pet chameleon, Pascal, and the suave on the run criminal Flynn Rider with several catchy and well done musical numbers still loved 14 years later.
Premiering Thanksgiving weekend, Tangled earned $592 M at the global box office and while diehard fans of the 2010 hit are hesitant to see it redone, director Gracey has proven he is fully capable of pulling off a good musical movie. His latest project Better Man (2025) is a musical semi-autobiographical story with a hairy twist that is premiering early next year.
There is no other official news for the Tangled live-action film.
David Auburn is Hollywood’s go-to adaptation screenwriter. His next gig is writing Another Round, the Chris Rock (dir) adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg's Danish-language film Another Round (2020), which starred Mads Mikkelsen. The original centered on four downtrodden teachers who make a pact to stay continually drunk to fuel their creativity. The film, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, is messy and profound (trailer).
Auburn has written:
The Lake House (2006)
Adaptation of South Korea’s Il Mare (2000)
Charlie's Angels (2019)
Reboot of the 2000 series
While Rock will nail the outsized joy the perpetually tipsy friends have, it’s tougher to envision Auburn achieving the same level of despair that allows the original film to resonate.
Appian Way (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Makeready (A Thousand and One) are producing Rock's Another Round for Fifth Season, which is financing.
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Tidbits:
The Oscars are streaming live streaming on Hulu. If you cut the linear cable cord a long time ago, this one’s for you. And we got this shiny new Oscar poster.
In 2024, YouTube viewers globally streamed over 1 billion hours of content daily on their TVs. That’s not surprising given YouTube has the largest share of total TV streaming., 40% larger than its closest rival, Netflix, and 2x larger than Amazon, with 2.5B active users (80M paid), user-generated content, premium video channels (ABC, AMC, BBC, Disney, ESPN, Fx, Paramount), and now the NFL. Their revenue Q4 2024 was $9.2 bn, a little shy of Netflix’s projected Q4 $10 bn.
The Pokémon Company and Aardman are collaborating on a stop-motion project set for 2027. There are not too many details, but Aardman is responsible for Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, among other classics, masters of stop motion. Pokemon is by far one of the biggest IPs in the world, pulling billions of dollars each year across various properties. I am sure somebody is super excited about this.
David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants partners with Samsung TV Plus for a FAST channel, Letterman TV, featuring 4,000 hours of archival clips, fresh commentary, and iconic late-night moments spanning 33 years on his beloved talk show Late Night.
Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) and Nick Santora (Reacher) will adapt John Grisham's Playing for Pizza for Skydance Sports. Moore directs from Santora’s script, with a production team led by Skydance and Select Films. Grisham's novel follows disgraced quarterback Rick Mastro, who finds redemption by leading an Italian football team to an unexpected victory.
A Friday Night Lights reboot lands at Peacock. The series is in the works of original series creator Peter Berg, showrunner Jason Katims, and EP Brian Grazer. Currently being pitched as a TV series to the studios/streamers. Watch the trailer for the original series here. Note that this is a fan-made trailer, which we rarely post, but whoever cut this to the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Immigrant Song deserves credit.
While the supersized season five and series finale are just days away, Yellowstone fans are getting some good news with the announcement of an official spinoff show with series standouts Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser reprising their roles as Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler. The show will come from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan and will most likely see more characters returning to the universe, which is, of course, if they survive the finale.
Horror maestro Stephen King is adding another adaptation to his lengthy list, with his short story Autopsy Room Four being made into a feature film adapted and directed by British director Ranjeet S. Marwa. Veteran Hollywood exec Jon Levin, who previously produced Netflix’s King adaptation In The Tall Grass (2019), is also on board.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
It is now confirmed that Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney in the four upcoming Beatles biopics directed by Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty) and released in 2027 by Sony.
Here’s the line-up:
Harris Dickinson plays John Lennon (rumor)
Paul Mescal plays Paul McCartney
Barry Keoghan plays Ringo Starr
Joseph Quinn/Charlie Rowe plays George Harrison (rumor)
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No word on the exact plot for these films, but for more insight into Mendes's possible creative direction, check out our previous cover story, From Beatles to Bond.
Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne is the newest actor to join Warner Bros. Panic Carefully, a paranoid thriller feature from director/screenwriter Sam Esmail (Leave the World Behind). Redmayne will be starring opposite Julia Roberts and Elizabeth Olsen with both the film’s logline and their specific roles being kept under wraps. Redmayne is currently starring in Peacock’s no. 1 political thriller, The Day of the Jackal, which has just earned the actor a Golden Globe nomination.
Production on Panic Carefully is set to begin in London early 2025.
Scream Queens’ Emma Roberts’ upcoming thriller film, Fourth Wall, is reportedly filming early next year in Saudi Arabia’s new A1Ula Studios. Roberts will play a former child star who is kidnapped and wakes up in a complete reaction to the show’s set with the rest of the cast. Fourth Wall marks the second project Roberts has collaborated with Stampede Venture, the first being this year’s rom-com Space Cadet from Amazon MGM Studios.
Kit Harington joins Mark Wahlberg in Apple’s The Family Plan Sequel.
The original, currently ranked #6 among Apple’s most popular releases, will reunite Mark Wahlberg with the Skydance producing team led by CEO David Ellison.
No production date has been announced yet. Here’s the trailer for the original film.
Jared Leto is in final talks to join an A-list ensemble for Barry Levinson's Assassination, a reimagining of JFK’s murder with noir undertones. The film stars Jessica Chastain as trailblazing journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, whose investigation into JFK’s death and its mob connections sparked intrigue and tragedy. Leto’s addition promises another compelling layer to a cast featuring Al Pacino, Brendan Fraser, and Bryan Cranston. With a David Mamet script and Robert Elswitt’s cinematography, Levinson’s return to feature filmmaking signals a potential masterstroke. Filming begins in Boston in early 2025.
FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES
Full breakdown of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival program lineup:
https://theindustry.co/p/the-sundance-lineup-2025
Read Denis Villeneuve & Jon Spaihts’s Dune 2 screenplay here:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy
Villeneuve directs. Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Barden, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Javier Bardem, Christopher Walken, Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista star.
Also, read the All We Imagine As Light screenplay at the same link above + 16 more Oscar-hopeful scripts.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Another SNL. We’re now getting a BTS look at SNL from Morgan Neville (dir: 20 Feet from Stardom (2013), Piece By Piece (2024) called SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.
Neville stated:
“I’ve been obsessed with Saturday Night Live as long as I can remember. For SNL50, I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite independent filmmakers to tell some deeper stories of SNL. Taken together, these standalone episodes give a new perspective of SNL and what makes it work.”
It looks like there’ll be a lot of never-before-seen BTS footage that takes us into the inner machinations of the show.
Audiences didn’t respond super well to Saturday Night (2024), the fictional retelling of the show’s shaky beginnings, which grossed $9.9 M on a $25 M budget.
We look forward to seeing what Neville can do! Peacock will premiere on Jan 16th.
Tidbit:
Nobody wants to die less than Bryan Johnson, a man who is biologically 46 but has dedicated his life and, at the time of publication, $2 M purely to defy aging and be “18 again”. Netflix has taken up the doc about Bryans's life, Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever. Chronicling his journey, including a fitness regime, strict diet, and lifestyle, the documentary should be arriving sometime in 2025.
If you want to live forever and have a couple of million to spare, try Bryan's latest routine.
ON THIS DAY
1977. Saturday Night Fever premieres in NYC
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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