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The Orphanage's Juan Antonio Bayona Helming Hater Next

by Alex Billington
October 10, 2008

Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona has been tapped to direct the feature adaptation of David Moody's novel Hater. The project is being developed and produced by Guillermo del Toro for Universal and scripted by Glen Mazzara (of "The Shield" and the "Crash" TV series). The thriller is about an epidemic of random violence in which ordinary people strike lethally without warning or remorse. Bayona is making his English language debut with Hater after impressing the world (to a grand total of $76 million!) with his horror film The Orphanage. "I like the idea of a movie that talks about the state of fear we live in nowadays," Bayona told Variety. I love the concept and now they've chosen a great director.

Universal originally wanted Guillermo del Toro himself to direct, but his journey on The Hobbit has prevented him from taking on smaller projects like this. Del Toro commented previously on the project, saying "I'll carry my weight on the creative side, in choosing elements and storyboarding, but it will be up to [co-producer Mark Johnson] and [Bayona] to execute the day to day." The book doesn't even hit shelves until February next year, but its garnered such feedback like "David Moody spins paranoia into a deliciously dark new direction. [He] is one scary guy." This should be a fantastically interesting project to follow, given Bayona's success with The Orphanage and the very intense subject matter of the story.

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