Editorial Staff
The Wonderfilm Media Corporation announced today that they’ve acquired Marshall Terrill’s 2010 biography “Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon”, and are planning to give it the feature film treatment.
Terrill spent 10 years doing research for the book, which follows the actor’s life from humble beginnings in the Midwest to the pinnacle of Hollywood and ultimately to his untimely death at the age of 50 in Mexico.
Over the years, Terrill’s book has drawn the attention of top directors such as James Gray and Steven Soderbergh and A-list actors like Ryan Gosling, Jeremy Renner and Channing Tatum.
Wonderfilm’s Jeff Bowler, Bret Saxon and Dan Grodnik will produce, with Terrill serving as an executive producer and creative consultant. Mitchell Welch also will exec produce.
The biopic will also chart the unlikely intersection between McQueen and Charles Manson (McQueen is a character in Quentin Tarantino’s Manson murders interpretation “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”).
“When I found out from Marshall’s incredibly researched and thorough book that McQueen was supposed to be at the Sharon Tate house the night of the Manson murders, I was instantly engaged in that story thread,” said Bowler. “I think we’ve found a fascinating way into the story of an incredible legend.”
According to Terrill’s book, Manson pitched a screenplay to McQueen that was rejected, putting McQueen at the top of a written kill list that Manson Family member Susan Atkins admitted to while incarcerated. Wonderfilm, the company behind the upcoming Thomas Jane-Anne Heche actioner “Salvage”, is fully financing the film.
