HBO just inked a deal with Netflix to develop a new drama series adapted from The Hater, a 2020 Polish thriller drama film directed by Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi) and written by Mateusz Pacewicz (Skwar, Corpus Christi), as reported by Deadline The film won Best Feature in the International Narrative Competition at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival in which both Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Trainspotting) and William Hurt (A History of Violence, Lost in Space) were in attendance as presiding judges. The Hater originally premiered theatrically on March 6 2020 in Poland, but had to be distributed worldwide via Netflix on July 29 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Hater is about an ambitious young man who flirts with success in the dark world of social media smear tactics, but quickly learns that his virtual games have violent reverberating consequences. Deadline describes it as a film in the same vein as Parasite and The Talented Mr. Ripley, hailing it as a “timely, elevated thriller that deals with class, politics, social media, disinformation, identity and the pursuit of happiness at all costs.”
The adapted series will be executive produced by Dan Farah (Ready Player One) of Farah Films and Roy Lee (It, The Departed) of Vertigo. Both Komasa and Pacewicz will serve as co-executive producers on the adapted series along with Wojciech Kabarowski (53 Wars, All for My Mother) and Jerzy Kapuściński (The Reverse, Supernova) of Naima Film, original producers on the film. Andrew Farah (Hellraiser) will also serve as a co-executive producer.
As reported by Deadline, Farah and Lee first received copy of The Hater as a directing sample for another project they were working on, but were smitten by it enough to want to turn it into a series. Farah told Deadline that The Hater is “both an enthralling thriller and a thought provoking social commentary that is universal.”
You can check out a trailer for the original movie down below.