Directed by Alexandre Aja and written by Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg, the film stars Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Jerry O'Connell, Ving Rhames, Jessica Szohr, Steven R. McQueen, Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss.

Local cop Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) must join forces with a band of unlikely strangers—though they are badly outnumbered—to destroy the ravenous creatures before everyone becomes fish food.

As spring break begins, Jake Forester reunites with his old crush Kelly and meets her arrogant boyfriend Todd Dupree.

Jake's mother, Sheriff Julie Forester, searches for the missing Matt Boyd with Deputy Fallon.

They find his mutilated corpse and contemplate closing the lake, but this is complicated by thousands of partying college students on spring break, which is important for bringing revenue to the small town.

Paula and Sam scuba dive to the bottom and discover a big cavern filled with large piranha egg stocks.

Novak and Julie find Paula's corpse and pull it onto the boat, capturing a lone piranha, which they take to Carl Goodman, a retired marine biologist.

Almost everyone in the lake is either grievously wounded or killed by the piranhas, including Todd, whose boat capsizes as he attempts to escape.

[2] Then-up-and-coming screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger wrote a spec script entitled Killer Fish for producer J. Todd Harris, the rights owner hired for Piranha due to their limited credentials at the time.

[6][7] Russell's vision for the film, which would have cost an estimated $23 million, was described as an "underwater thriller" as opposed to Stolberg and Goldfinger's draft, which took place during spring break.

Along with directing, Aja signed on to produce the film and rewrite the script with his filmmaking partner Grégory Levasseur.

[10][11] In April 2009, Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Ving Rhames and Richard Dreyfuss were cast in the film.

[15][16][17] Dreyfuss, at first hesitant to make fun of his career, eventually agreed to do the film after getting a higher payment from the producers.

Unlike some other 3D-converted films released in 2010, Piranha's conversion was not done as an afterthought, and it was one of the first post-conversion processes to be well received by critics.

It was set to have a panel on 24 July 2010 as part of San Diego Comic-Con but was cancelled after convention organizers decided the footage that was planned to be shown was not appropriate.

The website's consensus reads: "Playing exactly to expectations for a movie about killer fish run amok, Piranha 3-D dishes out gore, guffaws and gratuitous nudity with equal glee.

"[37] Christy Lemire, film critic for the Associated Press, said "Run, don't walk: Piranha 3D is hilariously, cleverly gory.

Just when you think things could not possibly get more ridiculous, that the film has peaked, Aja and screenwriters Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg manage to ram another syringe of adrenaline into its heart.

"[40] The Hollywood Reporter referred to the film as "a pitch-perfect, guilty-pleasure serving of late-summer schlock that handily nails the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the Roger Corman original" while stating "Jaws it ain't – Aja exhibits little patience for such stuff as dramatic tension and tautly coiled suspense, and there are some undeniable choppy bits...but he never loses sight of the potential fun factor laid out in Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg's script.

"[42] Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack album of Piranha 3D which included mostly rap, dance, hip-hop and R&B music.

Artists include Shwayze, Envy, Flatheads, Amanda Blank, Public Enemy, Dub Pistols, and Hadouken!.

[44] The film is Piranha 3DD and is directed by John Gulager with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan writing.

It stars Danielle Panabaker, Matt Bush, David Koechner, Chris Zylka, Katrina Bowden and Gary Busey, with Ving Rhames, Paul Scheer and Christopher Lloyd reprising their roles from Piranha 3D.