Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is reportedly close to completing the screenplay for his next film, an exploration of the brutal murders of Sharon Tate and four others by Charles Manson and members of his “family” during an infamous August 1969 home invasion in California.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction writer-director is putting the “finishing touches” on a script and has reached out to A-listers Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence about possible roles, though Lawrence is reportedly not interested in taking on the Tate role.
Tarantino is set to direct the project, while longtime collaborators Harvey and Bob Weinstein are reportedly attached to produce.
The film will be the director’s follow-up to 2015’s ensemble Western The Hateful Eight, which won legendary composer Ennio Morricone his first Oscar, for Best Original Score.
Charles Manson is returned to jail after being formally sentenced to death, April 19, 1971. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)
Three female defendants in the Manson court case are shown, from left to right: Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, March 29 , 1971 as they return to court to hear the penalty ending a nine-month trial in the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. (AP Photo)
Actress Sharon Tate poses for a portrait in 1968. (AP Photo)
Manson has remained in prison for his role in the murders. Over the course of the evening of August 8, 1969, Manson’s “family,” as he called his band of murderous disciples, broke into the Los Angeles home of filmmaker Roman Polanski and brutally murdered his then-wife Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and four others.
Manson and several of his “family” members, including second-in-command Tex Watson, were convicted in 1971 for the crimes (including the murder the subsequent night of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary) and were sentenced to death; the group’s sentences were later changed to life imprisonment after California abolished the death penalty in 1972.
Quentin Tarantino and Harvey Keitel speak onstage during the panel for the “Reservoir Dogs” Screening during 2017 Tribeca Film Festival on April 28, 2017 in New York City. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Tarantino’s eighth feature film was the ensemble Western ‘The Hateful Eight.’ (The Weinstein Co.)
THR notes that the film would mark Tarantino’s first feature film to be based on a true story; his 2009 film, Inglourious Basterds, was set during World War II but depicted an alternate historical reality.
Talent agency WME is shopping the feature around to gauge interest from possible studios to co-finance.
The film will reportedly begin shooting in 2018.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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