It was November 2008 that we heard Paul Schrader was set to leave Hollywood and heading to Bollywood, stating that independent cinema in America was barren and cold.

Now he's just seeing that idea come to fruition as the first film, Xtrme City, starts casting.

What's interesting about this project is that the collaboration between East and West didn't seem to have started so well. According to the article in Variety, Schrader said:

"I didn't think it was very good, so I came up with a better film..."

The film, Xtrme City, is a bilingual film which saw a collaboration between himself and the Bollywood writer Mushtaq Shiekh in the writing stages and Schrader plans to direct.

It's not clear from the article exactly what he did with the film, whether he just reworked the idea and together they wrote it, or he took Shiekh's script and entirely rewrote it, or whatever.

The final story for the film follows a former U.S. ranger whose sister-in-law is kidnapped by a crime lord in Mumbai and teams up with an Indian commando to rescue her.

The film is looking for notable actors from East and West and is to incorporate elements of thrillers, dramas and comedies, and it will be family friendly, just like almost all Hindi cinema, and there will apparently be song and dance routines.

Now that's really unlike Paul Schrader, well the Schrader we know. Is American independent cinema really so bad he had to leave it?