EXCLUSIVE: Brian De Palma has come attached to direct The Truth and Other Lies, the black comedy based on the award-winning Sascha Arango novel optioned by Chockstone Pictures and Nick Wechsler Productions. Steve Schwartz, Paula Mae Schwartz and Wechsler are producing, and Roger Schwartz is a co-producer.

Arango wrote the script based on the 2015 bestseller, which was awarded the European prize for best literary debut: the Prix Européen du Polar du Point. The main character is famous writer Henry Hayden, whose façade of being a virtuous, loving husband is in danger of falling apart when his mistress becomes pregnant. He tries to get rid of her but makes a terrible mistake in the process. In order to keep the past from catching up with him, Henry must manage a growing series of lies and complications.

“I have tried to portray Henry Hayden as a human product of modern meritocracy, where the individual is no longer defined by moral integrity, but by power and success,” Arango said. “In the Facebook era, the original becomes indistinguishable from fake. Success replaces faith and becomes religion.”

The director was the subject of the Noah Baumbach/Jake Paltrow documentary De Palma, which premiered to acclaim at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, where De Palma received the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award. The docu was acquired by A24 for worldwide release.

De Palma and Arango are repped by ICM Partners and attorney Don Steele. Attorneys David Fox and Jen Grega represented the Schwartzes and Wechsler.