He’s been a writer, a producer and the boss of Focus Features, but James Schamus is now looking to make his directorial debut. For his first project, he’s picked an adaptation of Philip Roth’s bestseller **Indignation{
Schamus also wrote the script, which will bring to the screen Roth’s 1951-set tale of Marcus Messner, the young idealistic Jew who travels from New Jersey to study at a small, conservative college in Ohio. There, he clashes with the administration, faces anti-Semitism and sexual repression and pines for a troubled girl. Producer Anthony Bregman, who has worked with Schamus several times before, is on board to help oversee the film.
“Marcus Messner is an extraordinary character, heartbreakingly open and alive, and Anthony Bregman is an extraordinary producer, heart-stoppingly economical,” Schamus says in a statement carried by The Hollywood Reporter. “Bringing them together for my first feature as a director is as felicitous a match as I could ever hope for.”
The cameras should be cranking next summer in New York.