The endless stream of edgy R-rated comedies continues next year with Bad Words, a movie that finds Jason Bateman playing a grown man who uses a loophole to enter a national spelling bee and sets out to destroy the competition. As dastardly as that sounds, he isn’t completely heartless as he also befriends a young competitor named Chaitanya and takes him under his crooked wing. Based on the 2011 Black List script by Andrew Dodge, this clearly wants to play in the same sandbox as something like Bad Santa, although that is easier said than done.

The somewhat surprising thing about this project is that it also marks Jason Bateman’s directorial debut. He normally plays naive, straight-laced characters so this is clearly an opportunity for him to try something new… perhaps getting behind the camera was the only way to make it happen. Either way, it looks like it’s trying a bit too hard, but it did receive some positive reviews at TIFF earlier this year. Bad Words hits theatres on March 21st; check out the first red band trailer after the jump and see what you think.