Outbidding other companies like A24, Momentum, and RLJ Entertainment, IFC Films has secured the U.S. distribution rights to AMERICAN PSYCHO director Mary Harron's Manson Family drama CHARLIE SAYS, which features former Doctor Who star Matt Smith as infamous cult leader Charles Manson.
Written by AMERICAN PSYCHO screenwriter Guinevere Turner and based on the books The Family by Ed Sanders and The Long Prison Journey of Leslie van Houten: Life Beyond the Cult by Karlene Faith, CHARLIE SAYS tells the story of
grad student Karlene Faith as she works with three brainwashed young women who were part of the Manson family — Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins. The story will be told via a series of flashbacks after the three women are incarcerated in a special security unit at the California Institute for Women.
Smith's co-stars include The Walking Dead's Merritt Wever as Faith, Odessa Young, Carla Gugino, Kayli Carter, Chace Crawford as Tex Watson, Hannah Murray as Leslie Van Houten, Sosie Bacon as Patricia Krenwinkel, Marianne Rendon as Susan Atkins, Suki Waterhouse as Mary Brunner, and Annabeth Gish as Virginia Carlson, head of the California Institute for Women.
CHARLIE SAYS was produced by Dana Guerin, Cindi Rice, John Frank Rosenblum, and Jeremy Rosen, with David Hillary, Ed Sanders, and Michael Guerin executive producing.
While casting an English actor who is almost 6 feet tall might seem like an odd choice for the 5'2" Manson, Harron has said,
A ton of people came in to read for it. No-one was right. It is a hard part because it is iconic and you need someone with a lot of guts to do it and who is charismatic enough to make sense of it. It was so hard to find someone for this role. If someone can get the inner Charlie and make sense of it, I don’t care what they look like. I don’t think when you watch him you’re aware he is so much taller than Charlie. The audition was electrifying. Matt could be scary, he could be funny, he could switch emotionally. It was just very exciting and volatile and I thought, yes."
IFC Films is planning to give CHARLIE SAYS a theatrical release sometime in 2019.