Empire has shared a pair of first look images from the upcoming serial killer drama based on the Boston Strangler murders, a project that was produced by Ridley Scott – and those images, which feature stars Keira Knightley (the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) and Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) in character, can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Matt Ruskin (Crown Heights) wrote and directed Boston Strangler, which was filmed in Boston back in December of 2021 and January of 2022. The movie tells the true story of Loretta McLaughlin, the first reporter to connect the murders and break the story of the Strangler. She and fellow reporter Jean Cole challenged the sexism of the early 1960s to report on the city’s most notorious serial killer and worked tirelessly to keep women informed. Loretta pursued the story at great personal risk and uncovered corruption that cast doubt on the true identity of the Boston Strangler.
Also in the cast are David Dastmalchian (Dune), Bill Camp (Joker), Alessandro Nivola (Face/Off), Chris Cooper (11.22.63), Rory Cohrane (Dazed and Confused), and Morgan Spector (The Gilded Age).
Ruskin told Empire, “Having grown up in Boston, I had always heard of the Strangler in a very abstract sense, but I didn’t really know anything about the details of the case and a few years ago, I started reading about it and discovered a really fascinating, layered serial killer story. I always loved journalism stories and in researching the case, I discovered these two journalists, starting with Loretta McLaughlin, the first journalist to connect the murders, and in her reporting, she actually gave the Boston Strangler his name. It was a really monumental story for her in her career in the early 1960s. She was a very ambitious reporter in a male-dominated field and this was a real turning point for her. In reading about Loretta and her partner Jean Cole, the other reporter she worked with, I discovered that Jean Cole’s granddaughter is an old friend of mine. I called her up and said, ‘is the Jean Cole your grandmother?’ She said yes, and that she had adored her and so she introduced me to both Loretta and Jean’s families, and they welcomed me with open arms, they gave me access to old photos, clippings and really shared the histories with me. So at that point, I was really hooked and devoted to telling their stories.“
Scott produced Boston Strangler alongside Kevin Walsh and Michael Pruss of his company Scott Free, as well as Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara of LuckyChap Entertainment. Sam Roston is overseeing for Scott Free, Bronte Payne is doing the same for LuckyChap, and Sarah Shepard is overseeing for 20th Century Studios.
The Boston Strangler murdered thirteen women in the Boston, Massachusetts area during the early 1960s. The movie will be released through the Hulu streaming service in the US on March 17th. In other countries, it will be available to watch on Disney+.
I’ll be watching Boston Strangler. Will you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Here are the first look images:
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