Austin Butler has been tapped to star in Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing

Austin Butler may not be confirmed to be co-starring in Michael Mann’s Heat 2, but the Masters of the Air actor has now been reported to be set to be the lead in Caught Stealing. Since 2022’s Elvis, Austin Butler’s star has really taken off. The former Disney and Nickelodeon child actor is capitalizing on his breakout film with roles in the recently released Dune: Part Two, where he plays the ruthless Feyd-Rautha. However, Butler hasn’t turned his back on smaller films, as he is set to co-star alongside Tom Hardy in Jeff Nichols’ period drama, The Bikeriders.

Now The Hollywood Reporter is saying Butler will be working with Darren Aronofsky for Sony’s crime drama that “follows Hank Thompson, a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC.” Caught Stealing will be penned by Charlie Huston, who is also the author of the book that the movie will be based on. Huston is no stranger to this process as he adapted his novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death for HBO, as well as his novel Already Dead, which can be seen on Max. He is also a seasoned TV scribe as he has written pilots for FX, Fox, Sony and Tomorrow Studios. Huston also served as a consulting producer for Fox’s Gotham, and worked in several development rooms. Aronofsky will be producing this film via his Protozoa Pictures.

Aronofsky is coming off the critically acclaimed film The Whale, which catapulted Brendan Fraser back into the movie spotlight as he earned his first Academy Award win. Aronofsky talks partnering up with Sony to make this new film with Butler, “I am excited to be teaming up with my old friends at Sony Pictures to bring Charlie’s adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride to life. I can’t wait to start working with Austin and my family of NYC filmmakers.” Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, also shared his excitment of working with Aronofsky on Caught Stealing, “Darren is one of the most brilliant audiovisual storytellers in the world, and adapting these wonderful books by Charlie Huston for Austin to star was too exciting an opportunity to not be a part of.”