Former teen idol Austin Butler looks to be bursting onto Hollywood’s A-List. He will star as the King of Rock, Elvis Presley, in the biopic Elvis directed by Baz Luhrmann. The trailer recently dropped and caused quite a stir with viewers divided on this take. Now it seems he will be stepping into the shoes (or more accurately, codpiece) of another rock legend, Sting. Reportedly, Butler is in negotiations to play Feyd-Rautha, the villain, in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.
It’s All ABout The Spice
Sting portrayed this character in David Lynch’s 1984 cult classic original film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi milestone. Matt Keeslar played the same character in the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries.
This news comes hot on the heels of the reveal that Florence Pugh is in talks to take on the role of Princess Irulan Corrino in the sequel. In the original book and adaptations, Feyd-Rautha and Princess Irulan appeared much earlier in the story, but it appears that Villeneuve is taking a different approach and will introduce these two characters in the second half.
Pugh has been an acclaimed actor for a few years, earning an Oscar nomination for Little Women, before breaking big in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Yelena Belova, the new Black Widow, in last year’s Black Widow and the Disney+ series Hawkeye.
Butler could very well break out in the same way with Elvis. Villeneuve seems to be the auteur that all actors seem to want to work with. The first Dune boasted one of the most star-studded casts in memory, including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.
Chalamet, Ferguson, Zendaya, and Brolin, at least, are expected to return for the sequel.
Austin Butler previously performed on Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Zoey 101, Switched at Birth, The Carrie Diaries, Arrow, and The Shannara Chronicles. He made a major breakthrough in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. Elvis may catapult him further into stardom.
Dune: Part Two is scheduled to begin filming on July 18, 2022. It is currently slated to open in theaters on October 20, 2023.
What do you think of the cast so far?
