On reputation alone (offbeat in nature and cornerstones of pop culture in their own right), writer Bret Easton Ellis and director Rob Zombie are a perfect match. And, happily, they're teaming up.
The twosome are developing a project for Fox and Alcon Television based around the Manson Murders (well, it was never going to be a period drama, was it?), which will see Ellis penning the script and Zombie on directing duties.
The infamous killing spree which saw nine people savagely butchered around the Hollywood hills between July and August 1969, with Roman Polanski’s wife Sharon Tate one of those victims, is still raw in the memory for many in the film industry - and given that ringleader Charles Manson is still in prison, the limited-series drama is sure to generate plenty of interest.
So graphic were the crime scenes around the mass tragedy, some containing messages written in blood, Ellis’s natural curiosity in all things psychopathic may just come in handy when trying to tap into the psyche of the Manson clan.
At least that’s the hope from Zombie, who told Variety “I have been obsessed with this insane story since I was a kid, so obviously I jumped at the chance to be involved in this incredible project. After speaking with Bret, I immediately realized that we shared the same vision for this epic madness."
Incongruously, Ellis's last screen work came with last year’s erotic modern-set thriller The Canyons, set in the same district those killings took place some 45 years ago. Expect his latest visit to be much, much darker.
(Images: AllStar, Rex)
