James Schamus Adds Trio to Directorial Debut ‘Indignation’

James Schamus has aced several careers so far, including screenwriter (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), studio head (Focus Features), published author (“Carl Theodor Dreyer’s ‘Gertrud’: The Moving Word”) and Columbia film professor. 

Now, after helming two shorts, he’s adding feature director to his list. Schamus is directing the 50s drama “Indignation,” which he is adapting from the Philip Roth novel. Principal photography starts this week in and around New York City.

Logan Lerman stars as Marcus Messner, the idealistic son of a humble kosher butcher (Danny Burstein) and his wife (Linda Emond) from Newark, New Jersey. When Marcus attends college in Ohio, he falls for a beautiful but troubled girl (Sarah Gadon), and gets into a confrontation with the school administration and its dean (Tracy Letts) over its sexual politics.

“Indignation” will be produced by Likely Story and Symbolic Exchange Productions in co-production with RT Features and X-filme. Producers are Anthony Bregman, James Schamus and Rodrigo Texeira. Stefanie Azpiazu, Avy Eschenasy, Lourenço Sant’Ann, Logan Lerman, and Jonathan Bronfman are executive producers.  FilmNation is handling international sales.