Bayona takes on Hater

Oct 10th 2008 By Sam Ashurst

He sent us all screaming from the cinema with The Orphanage, and now director Juan Antonio Bayona is going to brutalize us with his English language debut. He’s taking on Universal’s adaptation of David Moody’s thriller novel Hater.

Glen Mazzara has written the script for the pic, which will find an epidemic of random violence perpetrated by ordinary people breaking out around the world, reports Variety.

It’s been in development for some time and given that Orphanage backer Guillermo del Toro is one of the producers, it’s not really shocking that he’d want a solid choice for the director’s chair.

State Of Fear

Bayona certainly seems ready for the challenge of what will be a tough book to film: “I like the idea of a movie that talks about the state of fear we live in nowadays.”

But he’s not planning a simple shooting schedule for his first English language film – while he’ll shoot exteriors in America, he plans to shoot the interior scenes in Spain. That sound you hear is Universal’s production accountants quietly weeping at the idea.