Quentin Tarantino to take on 1969's Manson Murders: Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate? #book2movies

Sharon Tate with Roman Polanski

There is a lot of talk that Quentin Tarantino's next film is based on the true history of the Manson murders. The news was leaked prematurely, much to Tarantino's chagrin, leading to a lot of speculation including casting questions and how Tarantino, known for his over the top violence ala Inglourious Basterds, would approach the real world event. 

 Margot Robbie up for role of Sharon Tate

The director has famously said he wants to leave a legacy of ten important films; at this point he has eight under his belt, none of which has looked at such an impactful real life event. His signature style violence, cut to music, almost cartoonish in its stylized approach, would be a totally disrespectful to way to look at the way Sharon Tate was slaughtered by the man & his cult of creeps. The model and actress—she was Jennifer North in Valley of the Dolls—was pregnant at the time, her then-husband, the controversial, exiled director Roman Polanski is still living.

At this point no source material is being credited for the script but in an Indie Wire article Anne Thompson notes the writer director has been researching the 1970's for the past few years. Tarantino's script may not be an adaptation of any one book but the director will have had to rely on the historical record to get any telling right. At the top of the list of his reading list would likely be Helter Skelter, written by Vincent Bugliosi the prosecutor of the Charles Manson trial in 1970. The book is the number one best selling crime book of all time. 

A dark period of unrest, the Stonewall Riots occurred that same summer of 1969

Sharon Tate was murdered in the summer of 1969, a period of tremendous unrest in the country and around the world: while Nixon would begin to bring troops home, Vietnam was still raging, the Stonewall Riots—a confrontation between gay rights activists and the police—took place in June, in July Senator Ted Kennedy received a two month suspended prison sentence for leaving the scene of a crime when he left Mary Jo Kopechne drowning in a traffic accident in Chappaquiddick, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, Muhammed Ali was convicted for draft evasion and the IRA/England troubles were in full swing. 

Woodstock, August 15-18th

By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong and Sharon Tate and her unborn child had been dead for less than a week. Less than a week!


The director has been talking to Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lawrence, Samuel L. Jackson  and is rumored to be looking intently at Margot Robbie for the role of Sharon Tate, to my mind, a perfect choice.

IF Tarantino wants to make a serious, deferential film about the Manson Murders part of his oeuvre, with that historical background in mind, with the focus on Tate in a central role, I'm in. 

What do you think?