Guillermo del Toro likes to attach himself to a lot of projects. One such project is Hater, an adaptation of David Moody's novel about seemingly ordinary people suddenly erupting in an epidemic of violence. It was part of his first-look deal at Universal, and for a while he considered directing it. But that couldn't happen, obviously, so now he's doing what I think we're going to see him doing a lot over the years (and what we've seen him doing quite a bit already): producing it.

The director will be JA Bayona, who directed The Orphanage under del Toro's producing tutelage, and showed a vision that, while his own, was quite sympatico with GdT. While I found the film ultimately disappointing (spoiler: I kind of hate 'good ghost' movies, especially when the goodness is the twist), it was gorgeous and well-made.

"I like the idea of a movie that talks about the state of fear we live in nowadays," Bayona says. This is going to be his English-language debut, but he's hoping to shoot interiors in Spain.

If you want to get to know Hater before the movie gets underway so you can complain about casting choices and whatnot, too bad. The book doesn't come out until February! You can pre-order a copy through CHUD, though. Click here to do that.