Margot Robbie in the American Psycho remake

Update (28 October 2025, 5 p.m.): According to Deadline, there will be no gender swap. The magazine cites internal sources close to the production.

This news is likely to cause a stir! According to The Sun magazine, Margot Robbie is apparently about to take on the lead role in the remake of the cult thriller "American Psycho".

In the remake of the classic, the notorious investment banker Patrick Bateman is set to return in a female version – as Patricia Bateman to be precise. Director Luca Guadagnino, known for films such as "Call Me by Your Name" and "Challengers", emphasized that a female lead character in his much more erotic reinterpretation would make perfect sense. Guadagnino may even have been inspired by a viral Vogue video in which Margot Robbie parodied Bateman's famous morning routine years ago.

Fans were already puzzling over who could step into Christian Bale's shoes. Names such as Austin Butler, Jacob Elordi and Patrick Schwarzenegger were among those doing the rounds. However, it should be emphasized that this is still just a rumour. Official confirmation from the makers is still pending. The screenplay for the new "American Psycho" was penned by Scott Z. Burns, who was previously responsible for "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Contagion". There is no start date yet.

Between suit and abyss: 7 films that celebrate the double life of madness

He wears a tailored suit, listens to Huey Lewis & The News and loves his skincare almost as much as his axe. Patrick Bateman – the slick investment banker from "American Psycho" – is more than just a serial killer. He is the perfect embodiment of the modern narcissist: charming, successful, flawless – and dead inside. Few films have dissected the double life of the cultivated psychopath as precisely as Mary Harron's cult classic from 2000.

But Bateman is far from alone. Time and again, cinema has created characters who teeter between social façade and inner abyss – elegant monsters hiding behind beautiful surfaces. Anyone who loves the dark allure of "American Psycho" should be familiar with these seven films and series.

Seven (1995): The Order of Horror

David Fincher's masterpiece is less a classic serial killer movie than a nihilistic look into hell. Two investigators (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) hunt a murderer who chooses his victims according to the seven deadly sins. But what is really frightening is not the violence – but the perfidious logic behind it. Like Patrick Bateman, John Doe (Kevin Spacey) stands for the perverse morality of a system that has long since rotted away. A movie that feels like a cold cut.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999): The beauty of deceit

Matt Damon as a charismatic con man who sneaks into the world of the rich and beautiful – only to end up destroying it.
At first glance, Anthony Minghella's sun-drenched thriller looks like a vacation movie on the Mediterranean, but deadly envy lurks beneath the glossy surface. Ripley is Bateman's elegant cousin: a man who wants everything he can't have and will pay any price for it.

Dexter (2006-2013, 2021): The nice murderer next door

In the series "Dexter", the double life becomes the program. By day, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) works as a forensic scientist for the Miami police – by night, he kills himself. What American Psycho showed in the excesses of the 80s, Dexter translates into the domestic America of the 2000s: the perfect camouflage of the monster. His inner conflict – between justice and instinct, morality and bloodlust – makes him one of the most complex series characters of recent decades.

You (2018-2024): Love, obsession and skeletons in the closet

Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is the modern-day Patrick Bateman: a cultured bookworm who loves romantic gestures – and occasionally murders.
Netflix's hit series shows how narcissism and violence can be masked in the age of social media. Joe is not a classic serial killer, but the product of a generation that stages itself. He stalks, murders and philosophizes – always with the firm belief that he is the hero of his own story.

Mr. Brooks (2007): The gentleman with an inner demon

Kevin Costner surprises in this underrated gem as a wealthy businessman and loving family man who is also a brutal serial killer. He is accompanied by his invisible alter ego (William Hurt), who constantly tempts him to kill. Like "American Psycho", "Mr. Brooks" is a study of control, temptation and the desire for a double life – a film about the inner dialog between sanity and madness.

Black Swan (2010): Perfection to the breaking point

Natalie Portman plays the ballerina Nina, who dances herself into madness for her leading role in "Swan Lake". Darren Aronofsky weaves psychological horror, body obsession and narcissistic self-dissolution into a disturbing dance on the razor's edge. Like Bateman, Nina loses herself in a system that demands perfection and destroys humanity. The blood here is just a symptom of a deeper illness: self-hatred.

Zodiac (2007): The obsession of evil

Once again Fincher – this time more sober, but just as hypnotic. Zodiac tells the true story of the serial killer of the same name who terrified San Francisco in the 1960s. Instead of blood and splatter, the film shows how the attempt to understand evil can itself become destructive. Like Patrick Bateman, the perpetrator here ultimately remains elusive – a shadow lost in the mirrors of his hunters.

Conclusion: The grimace behind the mirror

What all these films have in common is not just the serial killer himself, but the double life – the elegant façade behind which emptiness and violence are concealed. Whether investment banker, forensic scientist or ballerina, they all try to control the chaos that rages within them. "American Psycho" was never just a horror movie. It was a portrait of the modern soul – smooth, beautiful, successful and deeply sick.

Anyone who loves the appeal of these ambivalent characters will find the perfect hall of mirrors in these works: stories that force us to look into the dark corners of our own masks. Because perhaps there is a little Patrick Bateman in each of us – hidden behind a smile and a flawless business card.