Polanski to Film Story of Wife’s Slaying by Manson
Friday, September 2nd, 1983
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 2 — Filmmaker Roman Polanski is planning a movie on the notorious Manson family murder of his wife Sharon Tate, a newspaper reported recently.
Polanski will make the film in Italy next year, after completing his autobiography, which is due out in January, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner said.
“I’ve been thinking of making a film about my wife’s death for years,” Polanski said. “I now have decided to go ahead. I can never forget the horror, but perhaps this will help.”
Polanski has already signed actress Brigit Hamer, a 23-year-old newcomer and Miss Tate look-alike, to play his wife.
Miss Tate, who was six months pregnant, and four others were beaten, stabbed and shot to death at Polanski’s Benedict Canyon home on Aug. 9, 1969.
Cult leader Charles Manson and four of his followers Charles “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins and Leslie Van Houten — are all serving life sentences for the slayings.
Polanski, director of the films “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Chinatown” and “Tess,” has been living in Europe since 1978, when he fled the United States following his Los Angeles conviction in a statutory rape case involving a 13-year-old girl.
“Even after so many years, I find myself unable to watch a spectacular sunset or visit a lovely old house or experience visual pleasure of any kind without instinctively telling myself how much she would have loved it all,” wrote Polanski in a new book, entitled Sharon Tate Recollection, marking the 45th anniversary of Tate’s death, compiled by her sister, Debra.
“In these ways I shall remain faithful to her till the day I die.”
I guess the project was canned cause we never saw it. Plus I don’t see how this would help him. Re-enacting something like that would cause more mental damage. Also, the writer made a mistake about Sharon. She was eight and half months pregnant not six.