Rising British actress Suki Waterhouse, who starred in Sundance hit Assassination Nation and was recently cast in Legendary’s Detective Pikachu opposite Ryan Reynolds, has added further fuel to her explosive start to 2018, joining former Doctor Who and outgoing The Crown star Matt Smith in Charlie Says — the upcoming feature from American Psycho director Mary Harron set around the infamous Charles Manson murders.
The pair have been cast alongside Hannah Murray (Game of Thrones, Detroit), Odessa Young (Assassination Nation, Richard Says Goodbye) Marianne Rendon (Imposters, Gemini), Carla Gugino (Sin City, Watchmen), Kaylie Carter (Godless, Rings) and the Emmy-winning Merritt Wever (Godless, Nurse Jackie) in the drama, which is set to shoot in L.A. in the spring and will be introduced to buyers in Berlin later this month.
Charlie Says will focus on the three young women (Murray, Young and Rendon) who were sentenced to death following the infamous murder case of Manson (Smith). When the death penalty was lifted, their sentence became life imprisonment. One young graduate student, Karlene Faith (Wever), was sent in to teach them, and through her the film will follow their transformations as they face the reality of their horrific crimes.
Reuniting Harron with her writing partner on American Psycho, Guinevere Turner, Charlie Says has been written by Turner and based on source material from Ed Sanders’ 1971 best-selling book The Family, as well as The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten, written by Faith. Until her passing last year, Faith remained an advocate for Leslie Van Houten, who had been up for parole over 20 times.
Charlie Says is being produced by Roxwell Films’ Jeremy M. Rosen (Dog Eat Dog) and producer Kevin Shulman (I Am Fear), with Dana Guerin, Michael Guerin, David Hillary and Ed Sanders serving as executive producers.
“Guinevere Turner’s script brings a fresh and unique perspective to the infamous story of the Manson murders and we have now found the perfect cast to bring it to life,” said director Harron.
Casting for the film is being handled by casting directors Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee, who previously worked with Harron on American Psycho, and also worked on the films Se7en, Dallas Buyers Club and Spotlight. Additional castmembers are set to be announced later.
Smith and Murray are repped by UTA and Troika, Gugino and Young are repped by CAA, Rendon is repped by Gersh and McKegney Management, Wever is repped by Innovative Artists, Carter is repped by ICM and Harron is repped by APA.
UTA is handling domestic sales rights, with Fortitude International handling international sales.
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