Hollywood Debriefs: Linda Cardellini Is DTF, 'FNL,' and the Casting of Patrick Bateman

It is seldom that I get legitimately excited about casting news — especially in a remake, and especially a remake of a movie I already loved — but I could get behind a remake of American Psycho from Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Call Me By Your Name). I’m even more excited now that he’s cast my favorite actor of that generation, Austin Butler, in the role of Patrick Bateman, originally played by Christian Bale in Mary Harron’s film. The OG American Psycho was a brilliant satire of ’80s excess and materialism, and I’m eager to see how Guadagnino reinterprets the material for the Trump era. (We’ve talked about it in the Slack: Guadagnino is definitely going to replace Huey Lewis and the News’ “Hip to Be Square” with an Imagine Dragons song, maybe “Demons,” per J.S.)

Elsewhere, beloved Gen-Xer Linda Cardellini has been cast in the intriguing DTF St. Louis, joining Jason Bateman and David Harbour in an HBO limited series “about a love triangle between three adults experiencing middle-age malaise, which leads to one of them ending up dead.” I don’t want any of those three cast members to die, but also, I hope it’s … Bateman? Either way, here’s why you should be excited: Steven Conrad serves as writer, showrunner, executive producer, and director. THE Steven Conrad, of Patriot and Perpetual Grace, LTD, finally running a show that people will actually watch. Everyone should watch Patriot in advance. Just because.

The Friday Night Lights reboot is becoming more real than perhaps I’d like. NBCUniversal’s Peacock has won a bidding war to stream the series, which will reunite series creator and pilot director Peter Berg with showrunner Jason Katims. The new FNL will move from Dillon, Texas, to somewhere along the Texas Gulf Coast, where “a ragtag high school football team and their damaged, interim coach make an unlikely bid for a Texas high school state championship after a devastating hurricane.” I am reluctantly excited because I love the source material, but I also have a hard time imagining FNL without Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler.

The Critics Choice Awards, one of the better awards organizations, has released their nominees for Best Film:

A Complete Unknown
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
The Substance
Wicked

The full list of nominations is here. Wicked, huh? Interesting.

Remember that Mark Wahlberg action-spy film you watched last Christmas on Apple+, The Family Plan? Yeah, no one else does either. But it’s getting a sequel anyway. Kit Harington has joined the cast. I assume Michelle Monaghan will also return, this time as the family goes on a European vacation.

Speaking of Wahlberg, have you seen the trailer for his January film directed by Mel Gibson? I keep seeing it attached to theatrical releases, and I cannot get over how hilariously bad it looks — or how silly Wahlberg looks in that bald cap. They’re dumping it in January. It’s also hilarious that the trailer says it comes from the director of Braveheart and Hacksaw Ridge but never actually mentions “Mel Gibson.” Also, what are you doing, Michelle Dockery? (I know what you’re doing, Topher Grace. Getting a paycheck anywhere you can.)