Paul Schrader has signed on to direct the Bret Easton Ellis screenplay Bait, Variety reports. He’ll take over for the previously announced Jonas Pate and will perform touch-ups on the screenplay as well.
The project (not to be confused with the similarly themed Bait 3D) was first announced nearly two years ago with the following official description:
Cole is a quiet young man, unassuming, who works as waiter at a posh beach club. But underneath his polite demeanor is a suppressed rage at hte wealth and bounty that surrounds him and is out of his reach. The arrogance and dismissive nature of the rich fuels his anger at the unfairness of the world, and he is a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode.
One night, a group of these elite kids build a bonfire on the beach and party into the late hours, drinking, dancing, swimming and having fun. Cole, off duty, watches the festivities out of sight. When he moment is right, he hesitantly strikes up a conversation with the pretty Haley. But when her boyfriend Ryan spots the two talking, he is incensed and aggressively confronts Cole. In spite of Haley pleading to let him be, Ryan and his friends beat Cole to the ground and then humiliate him before the crowd. It’s the trigger that sends Cole over the edge.
The next day the hung over friends plan to spend the day on Ryan’s father’s luxurious yacht. Haley had slipped this bit of information to Cole during their talk, and Cole is determined to exact his revenge. He disposes of the yacht’s first mate and reports for duty, claiming to the Captain to be the first mate’s friend, who had to go away on unexpected business. The Captain obliges and Cole stows beneath deck while Ryan and his friends climb aboard. When they get too far out to sea to be spotted from the shore, Cole kills the Captain. Waiting until everyone is in the water, Cole unleashes his sinister plan of revenge. His weapon of choice is a school of sharks smelling blood and slowly circling the boat. As Cole steadily picks off each of his enemies, their desperate chances for survival grow slimmer and slimmer.
Schrader is best known for supplying screenplays to Martin Scorsese classics Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ. He is also the director of films like Auto Focus and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.
Ellis, meanwhile, is a best-selling author famous for his explorations into nihilism. Several of his novels have been turned into films, including The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho and The Informers.
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
