Quentin Tarantino is working on a movie about the Manson murders

Sharon Tate

It appears that Quentin Tarantino has settled on his next film project and it will be based on the Manson Family murders. This will be his first film based on true events.

The film has yet to get a title but it was written by Tarantino, who will also direct. Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who have produced and executive produced the previous Tarantino films, are involved, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Part of the film is to focus on Sharon Tate, the actress and wife of director Roman Polanski who was murdered by Manson and his followers in 1969. Manson had ordered a group of his followers to attack the inhabitants of a house in the Benedict Canyon part of Los Angeles, believing it was owned by a record producer who earlier had rejected him. Over the course of several hours, the four followers, using guns and knives, brutally killed Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and four other occupants. In 1971, Manson and certain members of his crew were sentenced to life imprisonment for these and several other murders committed that summer.

Sources say that Tarantino is putting the finishing touches on the script and that Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson and Jennifer Lawrence have been approached. Pitt may be playing the detective investigating the murder. It seems that Margot Robbie is being considered for the role of Tate according to Deadline.

The plan is to shoot in 2018, possibly in the summer.

WME is said to be in the early stages of shopping the project to studios to co-finance and co-distribute the venture. The move apes the way Tarantino and the Weinsteins made the filmmaker’s 2009 movie Inglourious Basterds, which had Universal Studios as a financial and distributing partner.

I am happy for whatever Tarantino gives us and, if this comes to pass, I look forward to seeing what he does with it.

How do you feel about a Manson movie from Tarantino?

Photo by Michael Ochs.