6 photosGillian Zinser

“One girl from our set Stella Maeve, wrote to him in jail, wanted to go take a visit,” Zinser said on the set of Liars All, which she is currently shooting in L.A. “I’m not pushing my luck that far. I think the best part of my job as an actor is to do my research and create my part of the story. I don’t think meeting Manson at this point would be [helpful]. I have this vision of him in my head right now through his own words. I think on a personal level, he could manipulate our experience together in a way that would affect what I would bring to the story because he’s in a very different state of mind now. He’s been in jail for a very, very long time so where he is now is different to the man I’m supposed to be falling in love with and revering as if he is my god. So I think I’m going to stick to my earlier material of him as such but good luck to Stella.”

Zinser is doing her own research, and that’s creepy enough. “For this project in particular, I feel like I’ve had to explain why I’m carrying around like this Manson novel to people. I got some weird looks the first few days on [the Liars All] set. I’ve definitely read almost everything there is about him and watched all the documentaries that already exist and ‘Helter Skelter’ and read some pretty brilliant interviews. Manson’s stream of consciousness has been for me the most important form of research. Just becoming addicted to the way this man thinks and preaches I think is the most imperative to really believing what my characters motives are.”

Susanna Lo wrote and will direct Manson Girls. Her take got Zinser interested in the film. “It’s all based on the true events but it’s not the story about the murders so much as the bohemian commune, the ranch itself and the family of women that he manipulated, drugged into committing these acts on his behalf. So I think it’s going to be an awesome project because it’s directed by a female through the eyes of these seven girls who all came from broken backgrounds and how they ended up where they ended up and why they ended up doing what they did.”

Manson Girls is going into production this summer.

This is never going to happen. I know it. You know it. Tyler Shields knows it. But it’s a slow news morning, so let’s just keep writing about this. If she isn’t arrested, in the act of being arrested, or sleeping in, the role of Sharon Tate is hers. Tate, of course, was famously murdered by Manson and his followers in one of Hollywood’s darkest times. To stunt-cast the role of the upcoming actress seems in poor taste but Shields is aiming to manipulate.

“Sharon Tate was a movie star,” he says. “So I want [an actress who] you already have a backstory with. People have a backstory with someone like Lindsay. And I think it’s very relatable.”

“I’m just going to be directing people to do the craziest s— they’ve ever done,” he says. “[But] I’m going to find a way to do it where it doesn’t turn people off, but it gives you the feeling of it. I want this to really hit people in a really specific place.”

Yes. People do have a backstory with Lindsay, but I think it would help if the backstory wasn’t, “Hey! That’s the loopy bitch who sideswiped my car!!” (EW)

^{"Hi. I’m popular cult leader and murderer, Charles Manson."}

"True Blood‘s" Jason Stackhouse has signed on the play Charles Manson in writer Scott Kosar‘s debut directing effort The Family. Not to be confused with the similar project Manson Girls, in this film Ryan Kwanten will portray the famed madman to tell the story of how The Manson Family came together. Says Kosar:

"The movie won’t focus on the Manson murders. Nor is it a Manson biopic. It’s a family biopic. A movie about a surrogate family of wayward teenagers who, through extraordinary circumstances, came together and were transformed into the most notorious American family of the 20th century. Hence the title."

Oh cool. So like The Goonies. C’mon, don’t even try to tell me that Mouth doesn’t have cult leader potential. (Shock Til You Drop)