Tarantino may turn his lens on Manson murders
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film will reportedly focus on the Manson family murders — killings carried out by cult followers of Charles Manson, who believed the Beatles song Helter Skelter and others contain hidden messages about an upcoming race war between blacks and whites.
Tarantino is currently putting finishing touches on the script, not yet titled, and he has reportedly approached Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence for roles in the film, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety report.
Further details, such as the plot, remain scant. The Hollywood Reporter says one focus will be the grisly 1969 murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate, who was married to filmmaker Roman Polanski.
Manson and his followers raided Tate and Polanski’s Los Angeles home on Aug. 9, 1969. Polanski was out of town, but the Manson family murdered Tate and four others, leaving behind a horrifying scene.
“The brutality of the killings shocked even homicide squad detectives,” Time reported.
Blood soaked the floors and the ceilings were riddled with bullet holes. Manson and his followers scrawled messages across the walls with the victims’ blood. Tate’s body, in particular, was a horrifying sight, as she was stabbed several times.
“The Tate-Polanski home reportedly was chosen as a target because Manson had unsuccessfully attempted to get a recording deal from a producer who used to live there,” the History channel noted.
Eventually, Manson and some of his followers were convicted of these and other murders.
While many directors have tackled Manson’s story before, Tarantino’s version promises to be a “unique take,” the Hollywood Reporter says.
After all, Tarantino is known for his no-holds-barred, blood-soaked epics that blend together disparate genres. Race and unchecked violence also play a large role in his movies, making this story seem like a perfect fit.
Tarantino has tried his hand at historical movies before — one set in the Second World War and another during the height of U.S. slavery — but they didn’t adhere tightly to the actual history.
For example, the far-fetched ending of his Second World War epic Inglourious Basterds includes the deaths of many important members of the Third Reich trapped in a burning movie theatre, all but ending the war.
The Manson project remains in early stages, which means there’s no guarantee it will even make it to the silver screen.
A history of uncompleted films follows Tarantino, as Scott Meslow wrote in the Week.
A few examples: Double V Vega, which has been rumoured to be a prequel or a sequel to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs; Kill Bill Vol. 3 and Vol. 4, which would be sequels to the first two instalments of the Kill Bill franchise; Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, a remake of camp director Russ Meyer’s film of the same name; and 40 Lashes Less One, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s 1972 western novel with the same name.
Tarantino previously adapted Leonard’s 1992 crime novel Rum Punch into his film Jackie Brown.