Cinematical

German filmmaker Marcus Nispel became acquainted with the horror freaks when he directed the surprisingly solid Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake a few years back. Since then he's been working on his "Vikings vs. Native Americans" epic Pathfinder, which has had more release dates than Mike Tyson. But according to those wonderful monsters over at Fangoria, we now have the scoop on Mr. Nispel's next three projects.

1. An adaptation of American McGee's cult classic video game Alice for Universal, which we're told will star Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role.

2. A subterranean monster movie called Sublevel -- which sounds completely up my alley.

3. Most intriguing of all would be the second collaboration between Nispel and Texas screenwriter Scott Kosar: a Charles Manson movie. Yes, there have been several (including the one everybody's seen: the very well-regarded 1976 TV movie Helter Skelter), but this director seems to have a firm approach to the story: "Almost all of those films are told from a legal point of view, or what you'd hear in a trial. So the thing you have to do is look at it from an emotional angle: Whose eyes are we seeing this through who is not a cop or a judge? Scott found a very interesting point of view from an insider. Personally, I've always been partial to an approach similar to Paul Schrader's Hardcore."

So now let the speculation begin: Whom would you cast as Charles Manson? I'm no casting director, but for some reason Billy Crudup just popped into my head. I'll stick with that pick.