SAN ANTONIA – A film about a serial killer born in San Antonio is released at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
Deadline has reported that AGC Studios is looking for a buyer for a film about Rodney James Alcal, known as “The Killer of Dating Games.”
The film, which is expected to star actress Anna Kendrick, was previously purchased by Netflix, but it is no longer associated with streaming service, according to Deadline.
Kendrick is also expected to produce the film with his company Let’s Go Again along with J.D. Lifshitz and Rafael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures, as well as Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment.
The film will be directed by Chloe Okuno, according to Deadline.
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The film is based on a real episode of “Dating Games”, in which the bachelor Alcala was combined with the bachelor Cheryl Bradshaw.
At the time of the 1978 episode, Alcala had already killed at least five women and was accused of attempting to kill an 8-year-old girl, according to ABC News. None of the show participants knew about the charge because there was no national database or technology to verify.
“He had some mystery that I was uncomfortable with,” Mike Metzger, executive producer, told ABC News.
After the meeting on the show Bradshaw met with Alcala, and they were expected to go on a date with an escort.
Bradshaw realized almost immediately that something was wrong and did not want to continue leaving, said Ellen Metzger, coordinator of the ABC News show contest.
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“She said,‘ Ellen, I can’t date this guy. Strange vibrations emanate from it. He is very amazing. I’m not comfortable. Will that be a problem? ‘ And, of course, I said, “No,” she said.
Alcala’s crimes were not uncovered until the following year, when he was charged with the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samso. It was then that investigators found evidence and hundreds of images of unknown women and children.
Alcala was sentenced to death in 2010 for five murders in California between 1977 and 1979. He received an additional 25 years to life in 2013 after pleading guilty to two murders in New York City.
In 2016, he was charged again after DNA evidence linked him to the death in 1977 of a 28-year-old woman who was six months pregnant. He never faced trial because he was too sick.
While he was on death row, he was never executed; he died of natural causes in June at the age of 77.
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Authorities estimate he killed up to 130 people, but the true number of victims may never be known.
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