Directorial Debut Locked

A producer called Bill Hader's movie "mean and cynical." That movie is They/No, and Hader is locking picture on his feature directorial debut this week. Despite finishing the edit, the film is currently without a distributor while Hader considers festival options.

He joked that the difficulty of categorizing the film is likely why finding a distributor is taking time. Hader explained that early viewers found the footage "funny, scary, and weirdly sweet all at once." He compares that tonal elasticity to his four seasons on Barry, which inhabited a similarly unpredictable spot.

The actor credits Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa as a major influence on his psychological horror style. Hayter specifically referenced Kurosawa thrillers like "Cure" and "Serpent's Path" when framing his atmospheric dread.

To bring his vision to screen, Hayter turned down major acting commitments following the end of Barry. He reunited with Barry cinematographer Carl Hersey and editor Olly Greer after production wrapped earlier this year.

Before that shoot, Hader spent years wanting to direct but struggled to expand his initial story past Act 1. When that early producer dismissed his screenplay as "disturbing and cynical," Hader temporarily abandoned the whole project.

He eventually took the script back into his own hands, keeping the core premise while changing everything that followed. Watching Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa's movie "Cloud" inspired him to rewrite the entire script.