Sean Astin (Stranger Things season 2) and Ali Larter (Final Destination) have signed on to star in director Warren Skeels’ true crime thriller The Man in the White Van, which intends to “explore the origins of the white van trope in popular culture” which also digging into the story of real world serial killer Billy Mansfield Jr.
Madison Wolfe (The Conjuring 2), Brec Bassinger (Stargirl), Skai Jackson (Bunk’d), Gavin Warren (12 Mighty Orphans), and Julianne Arrieta (Reagan) are also in the cast of the film, so Skeels has managed to assemble a good group of actors for this one.
Written by Sharon Y. Cobb (co-writer of the 2015 horror film June) and Skeels, The Man in the White Van is set in 1974 and will show what happens when
an ominous white van begins stalking a young girl from the town of Brooksville, FL. Her parents’ disbelief that this is really happening, given her tendency to exaggerate, leads in the end to a terrifying Halloween nightmare.
Filming is scheduled to begin by the end of the month, and it sounds like this movie has the potential to be quite creepy. Wolfe is playing the lead role of Annie, with Bassinger as her sister Margaret and Warren as their brother Daniel. Those are the only characters we know any details about.
Skeels, who co-created the MTV series Siesta Key and directed twenty episodes of the show, is producing The Man in the White Van with Terri Lubaroff of Legion M and Anne Marie Gillen of Garrison Film. Legion M, Gary Kompothecras, and Lawrence Najem serve as executive producers. Mike Page and Arlie Day are co-producers.
Serial killer Billy Mansfield Jr. murdered at least five women and girls between the years of 1975 and 1980, and is known to have assaulted several more.