Nightcrawler is a 2014 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed and written by Dan Gilroy in his directorial debut and co-produced by and starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Louis "Lou" Bloom, a stringer who records violent events late at night in Los Angeles and sells the footage to a local television news station. The film also stars Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, and Bill Paxton. A common theme in the film is the symbiotic relationship between unethical journalism and consumer demand.