Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. Schrader wrote or co-wrote screenplays for four Martin Scorsese films: Taxi Driver , Raging Bull , The Last Temptation of Christ , and Bringing Out the Dead . Schrader has also directed 18 feature films, including his directing debut crime drama, Blue Collar , the crime drama Hardcore , his 1982 remake of the horror classic Cat People, the crime drama American Gigolo , the biographical drama Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters , the cult film Light Sleeper , the drama Affliction , the biographical film Auto Focus , and the erotic dramatic thriller The Canyons .