Empire is reporting that Jack of All Trades James Franco will star in and direct “The Night Stalker,” a biopic of one of the nation’s scariest and most-known serial killers, Richard Ramirez.

The movie will be based on the book of the same name by writer Philip Carlo. Screenwriter Nicolas Constantine stresses that the movie will not be a gory horror film. “This isn’t a horror film,” Empire quotes Constantine as saying. “Nor does it glorify Ramirez in any way. Philip Carlo painted an amazing portrait of Ramirez the human being, and how he became that monster. James Franco shares that vision, and we all agree that he’s the one actor, and now director, who can do that vision justice. He read the material and responded to it immediately.”

Richard Ramirez was convicted of a number of murders in Los Angeles during the 1980s.

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