Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Manson Girls


Yet another crappy low budget film is being planned on the subject, THE MANSON GIRLS. Being produced by the guy who did MONSTER, Brad Wyman (most famous in Hollywood for running naked through the corridors of Cannes) and Donald Kushner another exploitation producer, the script does NOT include Charlie at all. It is kind of like doing a movie but missing the entire point.

Lindsay Lohan is attached to play Linda Kasabian. Which is odd. Clea Duvall played her in the bad HELTER SKELTER remake and was suitably unattractive, like Linda. Lindsay is pretty. And talented. In this movie she has to do extensive nudity. Sounds like an extremely lame film.

Then again, La Lohan did CHAPTER 27, about the murderer of John Lennon, so maybe she has a thing for killers. Although that film never came out.

Weird

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

This almost sounds like a joke. But, I am afraid that it might be serious.

A.C. Fisher Aldag said...

Who is your dream cast for this movie? What actresses should ideally portray which Manson ladies? Any actress, any era (they can be younger than current age). Here are some of mines --

Linda: Jessica Simpson
Lynette: Molly Ringwald
Sandra: Reese Witherspoon
Leslie: Neve Campbell
Sadie: Lilly Allen (okay, not an actress, a singer, but anyway)
Gypsy: Sandra Bullock
Pat: Okay, I'm stumped here
Ouisch: Zooey Deschaniel
Cappy: Jennifer Anniston
Barbara: Paris Hilton in a fat suit
Mary: Maureen McGovern (hahaha!)

I just don't see Lindsay Lohan on the casting couch, somehow!

agnostic monk said...

hi there Col, I sort of recall reading somewhere a while back some little blurb about Lohan having a slight obsession with the Manson story, like she watched and read all the documentaries and books about the case she could get her hands on. Who knows, maybe she would be good in the Linda role (Duvall was fine, IMHO. one of the strongest elements of that flawed production. almost everyone else seemed like cartoons, especially jeremy davies - ye gads - and the late bruno kirby RIP.)

Anyway, Lindsey has some on-screen charisma I will give her that, but scrubbed of her hollywood gloss and makeup she's not all that much more attractive than kasabian was (who I think did clean up pretty nice without tons of makeup).

How in god's name can they make it work without a charlie figure? I'd love to see a really good, as-accurate-as-possible movie on the subject, but I aint holdin my breath.

agnostic monk said...

a.c., molly ringwald as squeaky, brilliant casting!!!!!!

: )

FrankM said...

Monk asks:

How in god's name can they make it work without a charlie figure?

Theatrically and dramatically I can see this working very well - a kind of Waiting for Godot scenario in which the girls fill in the void of stasis sitting around Spahn or Barker trading philosophical repartees on the Manson way ... while peripheral figures move in and out of camera.

Charlie can be there through his absence - often referred to, but never appearing. A common enough dramatic device after all (see Becket, Ibsen etc.).

I'd give it a music hall touch; singing, jugglers and balancing acts, dancing with hat and cane, . . to a backdrop of choreographed Manson and Family Jams songs. "How I love my garbage dump" as the girls dive into the supermarket skips. Ms Lohan singing sweetly "Die to be one" as she buffs her arsenal of hunting knives and M14s. Maybe even a flower power Greek chorus with gaudily painted strap-on phalluses intoning "No clothing, tears, or hunger". I can see, I can see, it could be.

And, no doubt, some gratuitous nudity and simulated lesbian sex ...

Nice idea.

Missed you guys

Frank

A.C. Fisher Aldag said...

Yaaay, Frank is back, smart-alecky as ever.

techie123 said...

Welcome back Frank.

agnostic monk said...

Frank now that is something I would pay good money to see! the flower power Greek chorus might steal the show.

Charlie can be there through his absence - often referred to, but never appearing.

that sounds right.

deadwoodhbo said...

A.C. Fisher Aldag said...
Who is your dream cast for this movie? What actresses should ideally portray which Manson ladies? Any actress, any era (they can be younger than current age). Here are some of mines --

Linda: Jessica Simpson
Lynette: Molly Ringwald
Sandra: Reese Witherspoon
Leslie: Neve Campbell
Sadie: Lilly Allen (okay, not an actress, a singer, but anyway)
Gypsy: Sandra Bullock
Pat: Okay, I'm stumped here
Ouisch: Zooey Deschaniel
Cappy: Jennifer Anniston
Barbara: Paris Hilton in a fat suit
Mary: Maureen McGovern (hahaha!)

I just don't see Lindsay Lohan on the casting couch, somehow!

9:16 AM, February 27, 2008

But who would play charlie?welcome home Frank:P

deadwoodhbo said...
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FrankM said...

deadwoodhbo said...

Dam i hear Charlie is tearing up all his mail had enough of useless gossip peace people:P

Well that should keep him busy. According to one website (a random search):

During his stay in prison, Manson has received more mail than any other prisoner in the United States prison system. It is said that he gets over 60,000 pieces of mail a year, much of it fan mail from young people hoping to join The Family.

If Charlie had the arthritis I have this fine winter morning he wouldn't be able to tear up a single sheet, let alone about 165 letters a day.

But maybe he has more efficient ways of destroying them?

Kinda quiet around here these days.

Frank

A.C. Fisher Aldag said...

Re: Charles tearing up his mail... I don't think that's any more true than the rumor about him cutting his hair off... I've received five letters over the last two weeks, cards, poetry, drawings, legal papers... some of his letters referencing stuff I'd just written to him.

Charles needs to learn to tear up his mail *after* he reads it, though, as I hear that scanless individuals sometimes fish discarded mail out of the trash, then sell it on E-bay. Ya just can't be too careful, nowadays.

deadwoodhbo said...
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deadwoodhbo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FrankM said...

For the uninitiated and any newbies passing through and out of respect for Becca, please let it be understood the Frank she refers to is not me.

Kind as she has been to me on this blog, our relationship has yet blossomed that far.

Frank (M not R)

A.C. Fisher Aldag said...

Now, where did anyone get any idea about whom or what I was speaking of?

"I do not cut my beard, it's God's will". -- CM

"And as for the record, your source's credibility is way in question? The old guy has "not" cut his hair or beard nor does he intend to. It's my belief however, that you just threw that out there for other reasons nevertheless, be assured he has "not" cut his hair nor beard. All is good in the neighborhood." -- another inmate.

And for those of you who are wondering why this is important to me, it is because our folk don't cut their hair or shave unless someone dies.

FrankM said...

Hi, AC - I have three questions for you:

FIRST: do you see Charlie as one of your folk? As a Gwyddon? As a shaman who follows your practices regarding cutting hair?

SECOND: Did he shave his hair on 29 March 1971 because of deaths ? Or was it the metaphorical death of being sentenced?

With regard to the second, in the Tom Snyder interview (a wholly surreal trip) he talks about shaving and hair:

I never had long hair before I got busted•. I never had a beard before I got busted. I went to shave and the guy's "No, you can't shave", I said "I need a razor to shave", he said "No you can't shave" I said "Let me get a hair cut" he said "no we don't want you to change your appearance." So when you , first put that camera on me you got long hair and a beard. First time in my life I've got long hair and a beard.").

Or is it just that in the Snyder interview he spoke any old garbage? Parts of it certainly give that impression.

THIRD: was the iconic, longhaired and bearded Life magazine vision of Manson a false one, and one he himself has adopted since to comply with the myth thus created?

Che Guevara had this problem too of wanting to look like his icon. The famous Alberto Korda photo of Che, the one every student had on their wall, was taken after years in the bush. Che himself was a tidy fellow before that, but needed to be identifiable to his followers.

(And if Che's pic is the most reproduced image in the history of photography Charlie's might not be that far behind).

Returning to the main thrust of this post, my point here is that it's easy enough for the myth to overtake the man, and more so when the man himself becomes taken up with the myth.

Anyway, three questions. Can you enlighten us, AC?

Frank

FrankM said...

Things that annoy me #372

Forgive me if I sound off.

There are some stories that one reads again and again and again. And again. This one at http://www.warphead.com/ is typical.

It reads:

Allegedly, Gillies was once dispatched by Manson to murder her grandmother and thus hasten her inheritance of the ranch property, but the plot was foiled by a flat tire.

There is something terribly sad about the Web, where people just keep recycling the same old rubbish without a thought as to whether it might be true and in many cases never even stopping to think whether it even makes sense.

Take this example – the one that is exercising me today. Cathy Gillies, lovely girl from her pics, decides – or is persuaded – to assist her granny to an early demise. She allegedly sets off, has a flat, and comes home again.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I put it to you that the decision to go out to kill someone is a fairly major thing. Serious shit. And it must take quite a lot of psyching up to get in the mood for it.

So you work yourself into a frenzy, set off on a killing spree, psyched up to murder your own kith and kin, suffer a flat (a daily occurrence in Death Valley), and give up and go home. And don’t try again. Not that afternoon, not the following day, not ever.

I mean, who writes this stuff.

Sorry, it’s been a long week, but now I’ll feel better.

Frank

starship said...

...but even the Hell's Angels gave up on trying to kill Mick Jagger after their boat sank. Another daily occurance off Long Island. Apparently that was the first and only attempt.

A.C. Fisher Aldag said...

Frank: Re: Haircuts -- That was then, this is now. :-)

Mourning a death can involve more than mourning the loss of a human life, or eight.

Everything about that Life (Lie) magazine interview was false. Yellow journalism at its most urine-soaked.

Re: Catherine -- Why inherit the Meyers ranch property, when they were invited to live there for free... and then have to pay taxes on it? Inheritance taxes, property taxes... when Meyers was pretty much unsuitable, anyways. (This ain't what I've been told, just my own reasoning).

FrankM said...

AC (if you're still on this page)

I don't think many of the people around Manson were that keen on DV. Many drifted away from Barker/Meyers, and even Charlie seems not to have spent that much time up there (although he did 'leave' people in place).

Cappy/Catherine was perhaps a different case. i understand she was brought up round there, with family then and now in Trona, and still visits the area. But I don't see her as a granny killer - more as a petulant Ilittle girl who was always out of the limelight and wanted to be in it but didn't really, if you get my drift.

I think you and I have more in common than we think - despite being on opposite ends of the spectrum with regard to CM. And I like the way you argue (sometimes but not always!).

Frank