Chloë Sevigny wants in on Luca Guadagnino‘s new American Psycho film.
Sevigny played Patrick Bateman’s secretary, Jean, in the 2000 satire, directed by Mary Harron. When she heard that Guadagnino would direct a new adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel of the same name, she made her interest known to the filmmaker.
“I pitched to him that I should play Jean again and that they do that reverse-aging on me. I thought that would be something that he would be into, conceptually having the same actress play the same part,” Sevigny recently told IndieWire.
The Monsters actress continued, “He said he was going to think of something else for me.” Casting is still underway for the role of Jean, but it is also for the lead, Bateman, who Christian Bale originally portrayed.
Many actors’ names have been rumored to play Bateman, such as Austin Butler and Patrick Schwarzenegger, to name a few. The original film’s casting director, Kerry Barden, told The Hollywood Reporter last month that Jared Leto’s role of Paul Allen would be a better fit for Butler. “I would cast Austin in Jared’s role because he’s that beautiful, and that’s why we cast Jared, is because he’s that beautiful,” he said. “Jared is certainly a great actor as well, and obviously, Austin has a lot of depth as an actor, too. But not every person has that kind of beauty.”
As far as Schwarzenegger, he replied to a fan’s tweet on X on Wednesday suggesting Bateman would be his “breakout role,” by writing, “I’d love nothing more,” followed by a winking emoticon.
Guadagnino’s American Psycho is set at Lionsgate with a script penned by Scott Z. Burns. The release date is yet to be announced.
Vivek Chaudhary’s I, Poppy, a film about an activist son fighting corrupt officials and systemic oppression in India, while his mother tends the family poppy farm, picked up the best international feature prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on Friday night.
The top jury prize win at the festival means Chaudhary’s film, which world premiered at Hot Docs, will qualify for consideration in the best documentary feature category at the Academy Awards. The win for I, Poppy also marks the second year in a row where a protest documentary from India won the top jury prize at Hot Docs.
Last year, Nishta Jain’s Farming the Revolution, a film about Indian farmers rising up against new laws, took home the Hot Docs best international feature documentary honor. Other winners this year at Hot Docs included the special jury prize for the international feature documentary going to director Sasha Wortzel’s River of Grass, a film about environmental challenges and other issues around the Florida Everglades.
The best emerging international filmmaker trophy went to Amilcar Infante and Sebastian Gonzalez Mendez, directors of Unwelcomed, a doc about a migrant crisis in Chile after the country’s most violent anti-immigrant protest, sparked by an influx of migrants from Venezuela. And the best Canadian feature documentary award went to director Amalie Atkins’ Agatha’s Almanac, a portrait of a simple life led by a fiercely independent Mennonite woman on her ancestral farm in southern Manitoba.
In other prize-giving, the special jury prize for a Canadian feature documentary was given to Denis Cote for Paul. The Quebec director’s documentary about a young man who does domestic chores for dominant women to cope with depression and social anxiety had a world premiere in Berlin.
The best social impact documentary trophy went to Talal Afifi and Giovanna Stopponi for Khartoum, a doc about displaced Sudanese filmmakers helping five of their fellow citizens to re-enact on screen their nation’s descent into civil war.
In all, 14 awards were handed out in Toronto on Friday night as the Hot Docs festival continues through Sunday, May 4.
Patrick Schwarzenegger is hoping to take a stab at a choice role that happens to bear his first name.
Schwarzenegger, who has made no secret over the years of his affinity for American Psycho, is continuing to publicly voice his interest in lead character Patrick Bateman in director Luca Guadagnino‘s planned feature adaptation of author Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 best-selling novel. Christian Bale played the investment banker harboring murderous fantasies in director Mary Harron’s cult-favorite film version that hit theaters in 2000 from Lionsgate.
In response to an X (formerly Twitter) user posting Wednesday that playing Bateman could be Schwarzenegger’s “breakout role,” the actor replied, “I’d love nothing more,” adding a winking emoticon.
This is not the first time that Schwarzenegger, who earned acclaim for his work on the recently concluded third season of HBO’s The White Lotus, has made it known that he has his heart set on donning Bateman’s designer suits. When development on Guadagnino’s project was first reported last fall, Schwarzenegger responded to a post about the news with, “My dream.”
In 2021, Schwarzenegger dressed as Patrick Bateman for a Vanity Fair photo shoot celebrating notable films from the early 2000s.
Christian Bale in American Psycho.
Courtesy Everett Collection
Guadagnino appeared in a video segment during Lionsgate’s presentation at CinemaCon last month to tease his new American Psycho. The Challengers filmmaker praised Ellis’ book — which satirizes the 1980s yuppie culture — as influential to him and noted that the script from Scott Z. Burns “is coming out very handsomely.”
At the time, Guadagnino said he was in “conversation with very exciting performers to play the leads” but did not name anyone specifically. Rumors circulated late last year about Austin Butler being eyed to play Patrick Bateman.
During a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Harron’s American Psycho, that film’s casting director Kerry Barden offered his thoughts on whether Butler might be a good fit for the part.
“I would cast Austin in Jared [Leto’s] role because he’s that beautiful, and that’s why we cast Jared, is because he’s that beautiful,” Barden said of the banker character named Paul Allen that Leto portrayed in the first movie. “Jared is certainly a great actor as well, and obviously, Austin has a lot of depth as an actor, too. But not every person has that kind of beauty.”
When speaking with THR for a story published last month for the White Lotus finale, Schwarzenegger said he planned to be patient before deciding on his next projects amid the career heat from the buzzy show. The actor’s previous credits include American Sports Story, Gen V and Midnight Sun.
“I really want to find something that’s right,” Schwarzenegger explained. “You know, there is one thing that I’m working on with this amazing director, a director that I’ve looked up to for my whole career. I’ve loved his projects, and we’re making something, and I hope it happens later this year. That would be extremely difficult and would put me through the most challenging, probably, life experience and acting experience.”
I’d love nothing more ????
— Patrick Schwarzenegger (@PSchwarzenegger) April 30, 2025
Robert Downey Jr. has assembled the Avengers to support the Thunderbolts*.
The former Iron Man star shared a photo on Instagram of himself and a few of his Avengers: Doomsday co-stars Friday after they watched the MCU’s latest installment. Downey congratulated the “So cool, fresh and deep” film alongside “the Old Avengers” and a few new faces with a group shot.
“Just wow!!! Dinner and a show with the Old Avengers. So cool, fresh, and deep. Big congrats. #thunderbolts,” Downey wrote on Friday.
He posed for a group shot alongside a few of his Avengers: Endgame co-stars, including Thor’s Chris Hemsworth, Ant-Man lead Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, who’s been a part of Captain America for years and recently took over the franchise, and Winston Duke, who played M’Baku in Black Panther.
Fellow Marvel alum Simu Liu, who previously starred in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, was also featured in the picture alongside MCU newbies and fellow Doomsday cast members Channing Tatum, Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
Tatum debuted in the MCU in Deadpool & Wolverine as the X-Men character Remy LeBeau/Gambit. Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach will portray Sue Storm/The Invisible and Ben Grimm/The Thing, respectively, in Fantastic Four: First Steps later this summer.
After departing from the mega-franchise following Endgame in 2019, Downey announced his return to the MCU as infamous villain Doctor Doom last July. Next year, he will originate the character in Doomsday along with a second slated appearance in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.
Thunderbolts* notably “assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes.” Sebastian Stan, who has reappeared in multiple stints across the franchise, returns as Bucky Barnes, though the rest of the cast are relatively new MCU stars. Stan leads the film alongside Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Wyatt Russell (John Walker), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Lewis Pullman (Bob), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (CIA director Valentine Allegra de Fontaine).
Samuel L. Jackson and Pierce Brosnan have their eyes on a missing stash of gold in the trailer for the Western movie The Unholy Trinity.
Saban Films and Roadside Attractions are set to release director Richard Gray’s feature in theaters nationwide June 13. Brandon Lessard, Veronica Ferres, Gianni Capaldi, Q’orianka Kilcher, Tim Daly, Ethan Peck, Katrina Bowden and David Arquette round out the cast.
Set in Montana in the 1870s, The Unholy Trinity centers on Henry Broadway (Lessard), who heads to the town of Trinity with a plan to murder the man who framed his late father. Once he arrives, Henry is caught in a feud between the upstanding new sheriff (Brosnan) and the mysterious St. Christopher (Jackson).
“Let me give you a bit of advice: Keep your ancestry between us,” Brosnan warns Lessard in the trailer after learning of his father’s identity. “Not every man who is known is loved.”
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Later, Jackson boasts, “I know your daddy real well. Me and him stole enough gold to pave the streets of heaven.” He goes on to add, “In case it ain’t obvious, you will find that gold.”
Gray (Murder at Yellowstone City) directed the film from a script by Lee Zachariah. Serving as producers are Gray, Carter Boehm, Kellie Lessard Brooks, Jeanne Allgood Gaisford, Michele Gray, Colin Floom and Cameron Lessard.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter late last year to promote his drama The Last Rifleman, Brosnan reflected on his busy schedule of late.
“I’ve got four movies in the can,” the actor said at the time about Black Bag and other projects. “I’m at a very joyful time to be able to move around the stage and to be able to have choices and hopefully to be able to equip myself within the roles.”
In the aftermath of Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds remained firm that he did not see another solo Deadpool movie in his future. That was despite the film grossing $1.338 billion, a number that validated the extraordinary amount of creative control he wields over the franchise, and which proved he was the most valuable new player in the Marvel Studios arsenal.
Now, nine months after Deadpool & Wolverine became the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time, Reynolds is quietly plotting his return to the character, but true to his word, it won’t be as the lead of a solo movie.
Reynolds is exploring ideas for a Deadpool movie that would feature X-Men characters, as well as continuing to script the Paramount comedy Boy Band after making writing a priority for much of this year before tackling other obligations, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
The multi-hyphenate is working on various treatments for an ensemble film featuring three or four X-Men characters. Deadpool would of course appear, but perhaps only as a supporting player. Reynolds is said to believe that keeping his f-bomb wielding anti-hero more on the sidelines could allow for the X-Men characters to be used in unexpected ways. Reynolds has been open about every Deadpool movie needing a strong reason to exist, and it’s possible this could provide the avenue he needs.
The potential film is separate from a potential X-Men movie that Hunger Games writer Michael Lesslie is penning for Marvel Studios.
There’s no word on which X-Men characters Reynolds is toying with, though Oscar-nominated Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, whom Reynolds honored at the National Board of Review in January alongside her co-star Ariana Grande, has publicly lobbied to play Storm in the MCU. Reynolds would need to defer to Marvel on any such casting decisions.
It’s extremely early days and far from becoming a reality, and Reynolds — known for tinkering with concepts he hopes to share with Marvel in the future — is working separate from the studio at this stage. It’s not unusual for Reynolds to go through many iterations before landing on the right idea; before Deadpool & Wolverine, one idea he pitched for Deadpool 3 was a low-budget road trip movie.
Reynolds has played in the X-Men sandbox before, with Deadpool & Wolverine featuring villains Sabertooth (Tyler Mane) and Pyro (Aaron Stanford), while X-Men such as Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) have been in all three Deadpool movies. He lured Hugh Jackman out of retirement as Wolverine, a character who likely will show up in an Avengers movie down the road. And he wrote a Deadpool & Wolverine role for Channing Tatum, who was long attached to a Gambit movie that never happened at Fox. Tatum will now appear in Avengers: Doomsday, along with stars from the original Fox X-Men movies such as Patrick Stewart (Prof. X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), James Marsden (Cyclops), Alan Cuming (Nightcrawler) and Rebecca Romijn (Mystique).
His focus on his writing came amid a planned break in filming. It also ended up coinciding with the high-profile legal battle between his wife Blake Lively and her It Ends with Us director/co-star Justin Baldoni (Reynolds has been named alongside Lively as a plaintiff in Baldoni’s suit, but Reynold’s attorney are requesting that he be dismissed). If the two sides don’t settle, a trail is set for next March.
Sources say Reynolds also continues to work on a rewrite of the script for Boy Band, a Paramount feature he would star in about aging members of a boy band. His close friend Jackman is keen to co-star, and the cameo possibilities are delicious to ponder. While Reynolds will still appear in front of the camera, the project is all part of a shift in recent years to producing and writing. There is no start date or release date for the film.
“I’m more passionate about storytelling than I am about acting,” Reynolds said in an interview with THR last year. “If I win, great. If I lose, I get to also feel like I was the architect of my own demise.”
At the time, Reynolds also told THR that he believed Deadpool could appear opposite the X-Men and the Avengers, but that the character joining those teams would have unintended consequences. “His ultimate dream is to be accepted and appreciated. But he can’t be accepted. His coping mechanism of deflecting shame through humor works only when used to pave over his many inadequacies. If and when he does become an Avenger or X-Man, we’re at the end of his journey.”
Reynolds noted something similar last month while suggesting that he might be working on an MCU pic. Said the star at the Time 100 Summit, where he was among the honorees speaking on various panels: “I like that he’s isolated. If Deadpool becomes an Avenger or an X-Man, we’re at the end. That’s his wish fulfillment, and you can’t give him that.”
