King of the Ants is a 2003 film from director Stuart Gordon. It is based on a novel by writer Charlie Higson, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The film played at various festivals, but was not released wide theatrically due to its grim nature and content.
The film was produced by Gordon, Higson and George Wendt (whom Gordon previously knew from their days in the Chicago theatre community).
The film follows the story of Sean Crawley (Chris McKenna), a struggling young man trying to make ends meet by painting houses in suburban Los Angeles. One day, Sean meets "Duke" Wayne (George Wendt), who introduces Sean to his boss, a shady developer named Ray Matthews (Daniel Baldwin). Ray hires Sean as a spy, and orders him to follow Eric Gatley (Ron Livingston), an accountant who has been investigating Ray's company. Problems start when Ray, while drunk, offers Sean $13,000 to kill Eric. Sean accepts his offer and, although ambivalent, ends up killing Gatley by breaking into his house and beating him to death. When Sean goes to collect his pay, however, he is double-crossed and when he insists that they pay him, he is kidnapped and taken to Ray's secluded farm. It emerges that
(This is information generated from a Wikipedia article, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.)