Quentin Tarantino to Write, Direct Film About Manson Murders
Killing of Sharon Tate and friends will reportedly feature in Tarantino’s latest
Matt Donnelly | July 11, 2017 @ 6:07 PM
Last Updated: July 12, 2017 @ 8:38 AM
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Quentin Tarantino is setting up shop on Cielo Drive, according to multiple reports. The filmmaker is finishing work on a screenplay about one of the most heinous and tragic crimes in Hollywood history — the Charles Manson murders. He will reportedly direct as well.
News of the film was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Longtime Tarantino collaborators and champions Harvey and Bob Weinstein are involved in the process, though its unclear if the eponymous production company is on board to finance and release.
Representatives for Tarantino and The Weinstein Company did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
A-list actors are being courted for prime roles in the conceit, which will largely cover the most famous killings ordered by the cult leader: the murders of Sharon Tate, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and her love Wojciech Frykowski. The crime occurred at the home of Tate’s husband Roman Polanski, nestled in Los Angeles’ Benedict Canyon on Cielo Drive.
Tarantino has not made a film since 2015’s “The Hateful Eight.” Notoriously insular and old fashioned, any project from the director is of interest to film fans, but source material like this could have huge commercial appeal given the crimes’ staying power in pop culture.
Producer Ryan Murphy (“American Crime Story,” “American Horror Story”) has spoken often of his attempts to secure life rights for victims of Manson and his followers, with the intention of turning the crime into an entire season of AHS.
Tarantino is repped by WME and Lavely & Singer. He is a five-time Oscar nominee, with two wins in the Best Original Screenplay category for “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained.”
Every Quentin Tarantino Movie Ranked From 'Reservoir Dogs' to 'Hateful Eight' (Photos)
8. "Death Proof"(2007)
Despite some truly audacious stunt work by Zoe Bell on the hood of a careening Dodge Challenger, Tarantino's homage to grindhouse fails to transcend that leering genre. If anything, "Death Proof" unintentionally makes the case for exploitation flicks' niche appeal with its cardboard characters and lurid set pieces.
7. "Reservoir Dogs" (1992)
Tarantino's directorial debut inaugurates the self-assured vision of a filmmaker who knows exactly what kind of movies he wants to make. Vicious and nihilistic, the crime thriller is also largely an exercise in style despite fantastic performances by Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Madsen.
6. "Kill Bill, Vols. 1 & 2" (2003-04)
Tarantino's movies are never short of watchable, but this two-part, four-hour pastiche epic is the director at his second most fanboyish (after "Death Proof"). Tarantino himself has said of the Uma Thurman vehicle that it's "not about real life, it's just about other movies" -- and it shows. As a primer on Tarantino's favorite movies, it's enjoyable enough. As a standalone film, it fails to register beyond the over-the-top fight scenes.
5. "The Hateful Eight" (2015)
Thinly drawn characters and a three-hour-plus running time make this Western an inessential and interminable chamber drama. After the peaks of "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained," it's disappointing to see Tarantino return to pointlessly bloody form, especially given the film's promisingly fertile post-Civil War setting.
4. "Pulp Fiction"(1994)
Arguably the most important movie of the '90s, this smirking Palme d'Or winner now feels slightly rambling and repetitive. Still, its instantly recognizable lines, characters, and scenes must be acknowledged, and Samuel L. Jackson's alert but world-weary hitman gives this tale of L.A. lowlifes an emotional weightiness Tarantino's lesser efforts don't quite achieve.
3. "Inglourious Basterds" (2009)
This alternate-history cartoon is Tarantino at his most entertaining, featuring a continent full of snappily sketched characters and star-making (or -remaking) turns by Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, and Melanie Laurent. But whacking Nazis with bats and setting them on fire don't add up to much more than a hollow revenge fantasy, however funnily or majestically rendered.
2. "Jackie Brown"(1997)
Tarantino's only attempt at a real love story (sorry, "Django" doesn't count), "Jackie Brown" is in many ways the director's most human film. The soundtrack is flawless, Pam Grier's in top form, and the tangled busyness of the criminal escapades just make Jackie and her would-be bail-bondsman suitor's (Robert Forster) middle-aged melancholy that much more moving.
1. "Django Unchained" (2012)
The rare Tarantino movie to actually be "about" something, "Django Unchained" explores the still-taboo topic of black anger at white Southerners for slavery with wit, ferocity, and cinematic flair. Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio deliver career-best performances in this delirious rhapsody, and for once the director's signature hyper-violence has a point beyond its own sake. If only Tarantino would allow himself to be so ambitious with every project.
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TheWrap movie critic Inkoo Kang reassesses the director’s 23-year career, from “Reservoir Dogs” to “The Hateful Eight”