Boston Strangler: Morgan Spector joins Keira Knightley in Ridley Scott production

Deadline reports that Morgan Spector of the HBO Max series The Gilded Age is joining Keira Knightley (the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) and his The Gilded Age co-star Carrie Coon in the cast of a serial killer drama based on the Boston Strangler murders, a project that is being produced by Ridley Scott. 

Matt Ruskin (Crown Heights) is writing and directing Boston Strangler, which began filming in December at locations in – appropriately – Boston. The movie will tell the true story of

Loretta McLaughlin, the first reporter to connect the murders and break the story of the Strangler. She and fellow reporter Jean Cole challenged the sexism of the early 1960s to report on the city’s most notorious serial killer and worked tirelessly to keep women informed. Loretta pursued the story at great personal risk and uncovered corruption that cast doubt on the true identity of the Boston Strangler.

Also in the cast are David Dastmalchian (Dune), Alessandro Nivola (Face/Off), and Chris Cooper (11.22.63).

Scott is producing Boston Strangler alongside Kevin Walsh and Michael Pruss of his company Scott Free, as well as Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara of LuckyChap Entertainment. Sam Roston is overseeing for Scott Free, Bronte Payne is doing the same for LuckyChap, and Sarah Shepard is overseeing for 20th Century Studios.

The report of Knightley’s casting noted that Ruskin is a Boston native and “researched McLaughlin and Cole by tracking down their families and their actual research from the early ’60s.” The Boston Strangler murdered thirteen women in the Boston, Massachusetts area during the early 1960s.

I don’t know much about the case myself, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this movie turns out.

Spector received a Critics Choice nomination for his role in the HBO mini-series The Plot Against America. He has also been seen in episodes of Orange Is the New Black, Boardwalk Empire, Person of Interest, Allegiance, Homeland, Pearson, and the Stephen King series The Mist.