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In my review for Juan Antonio Bayona's creepy debut The Orphanage, I noted the noticeable similarity between it and Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone. Bayona shares Del Toro's love of the mise-en-scene; framing pretty, almost artsy shots even in horrific moments. They also favor the slow crawl through a dramatic narrative before slamming in a violent image out of nowhere. With Del Toro getting busier and busier offers from big Hollywood movies that want him to helm, could it be that Bayona is the man to fill the void left behind, perhaps gradually climb up to Guillermo's level?

The substitution assignment seems to have started, with Bayona just signed on to direct a former Guillermo project, Hater.

The film is based on David Moody's novel about a weird phenomena in which everyone starts to randomly and violently attack each other. It sounds a lot like The Signal, but with a more focused goal. Del Toro is a fan of the book, even offering the following quote for the hardcover edition:

"A head-spinning thrill ride, a caustionary tale about the most salient emotion of the 21st century... HATER will haunt you long after you read the last page..."

Late last year, he signed on to adapt the book into a movie. It would have been his next after Hellboy II, if it weren't for that damn Hobbit movie keeping him chained for the next four years. Unable to stay as director, Guillermo still stuck to the project in a producing capacity. Since then, the project found a scriptwriter in The Shield and Crash: The Series writer Glen Mazzara. Now it also has a director.

Could this be Bayona's Pan's Labyrinth? And if so, is he going to follow Del Toro's footsteps in taking on comic book movies? There's really no reason to say for certain either way, but Bayona is going to be an interesting director to keep an eye on, and Hater should be an interesting project, as well.