How Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour True Crime Movie Came to Netflix

Woman of the Hour found a savior in Anna Kendrick, just when she needed one the most.

The true-crime thriller is now streaming on Netflix and marks the feature directorial debut of Kendrick, who also stars. The film is based on the story of real-life serial killer Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) and his reputation as the “Dating Game Killer”, as the narrative includes his appearance in a 1978 episode . The dating game with single Cheryl Bradshaw. (The main female character, played by Kendrick, is named “Sheryl” for the film.)

During his conversation with The Hollywood Reporterscreenwriter Ian McDonald explains why he felt compelled to change the dialogue from the game show, his failed efforts to connect with the film’s theme, and why he hopes the streaming film will be “received as art, not as content”.

How did you know this story would work for a movie?

It really started when I read an article online about one of those lists of weird true crime stories.

Are you a true crime fan?

Kind of yes, kind of no. The serial killer stories I love are usually fictional. What got me interested in Rodney Acala was less about him and more about everything around him. As I researched further, everyone (who knew him and learned of his crimes) said, “Yeah, that makes sense.” People are going to compare him to Ted Bundy, but Ted Bundy was really good at pretending to be this affable, all-American guy, and Rodney Alcala really didn’t even pretend. The most interesting thing about him is the way people around him look the other way, and how that allowed him to get away with his bad behavior for as long as he did. Sometimes this is police or The dating game or just the judicial system in general.

Your script was on the Blacklist in 2017. How did it finally end up as Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut?

It was a very long process. I started the first scheme in 2016, and so it has been almost eight years. He almost died almost four times, where he was with a production company, and then that fell apart. There’s a podcast that came out about Rodney Alcala, and the podcast company had an early deal with some TV company, and I’m like, “Mine died exactly the moment that podcast came out. This it’s the end.” And it’s heartbreaking; it’s horrible Honestly, when Anna came to direct, everything had been moving very, very slowly, and then suddenly it moved very quickly, where suddenly we were going to shoot in six weeks, and we had a financier and a budget. Anna saved the movie.

How was working with her?

It couldn’t have gone better. She saw the film exactly as I did, and had only very smart and incisive notes. But most importantly, his notes were things that made the script more of what I wanted it to be, not less. She had a fresh eye and could see things that, over the years, I had become blind to. A magnificent collaborator.

Were you hoping to hook up with the real-life Cheryl?

I tried to connect with Cheryl. I couldn’t find her in the first place, and to some extent, I took it as an option. There have been these Date line episodes about Rodney Alcala, and they’ve managed to have previous victims, and he’s never appeared in anything like this. I took it that she really didn’t want this chance encounter with a psychopath to define her life. That’s part of why I changed the name and a bunch of key bio and background stuff. It’s more like an alternate world version of Cheryl. yes this Cheryl had been on this game show, this is how it would have gone.

Is Daniel’s performance what you envisioned for Rodney?

He was perfect. The trickiest thing was, if you go back and watch Rodney live dating gameyou couldn’t take that dialogue and put it in a movie today because it would be like, “Obviously, he’s a serial killer.” Dating etiquette and rules have changed between 1978 and 2024, and what’s a funny joke and what’s a nasty, nasty joke, that’s changed in the last 50 years. If you just take it exactly as it was, people will be like, “Well, Cheryl’s an idiot.” Daniel’s big move was to make sure contemporary audiences could feel what women feel, and he does a wonderful job.

Why would Rodney do something so public in the middle of this crime spree?

He’s like a bunch of sociopaths, where he doesn’t think he’ll get caught. I guess he probably thought it would be funny. There may even have been some element of exhibitionism about it.

Are there any key points in the film that relate to contemporary society?

Rodney’s behavior strikes me as very masculine, but he only represents one end of the spectrum of toxic male behavior. The other end of the spectrum is the boyfriend who says, “Don’t you think they would have screened him?” The game show host is somewhere in the middle. So really researching all of that, and the way you look the other way when there’s a problem in front of you helps and encourages all of that. A lot of people will be able to look at the spectrum and say, “I can see myself somewhere on this, and we have a collective responsibility to do better.”

What’s next for you as a writer and do you get offered projects like this?

I’m working on five or six things right now, and I’m excited about all of them. What I’m particularly excited about is that they’re all very different, and I’m trying to be very conscious and aware of not being “the serial killer,” especially since that would be a very depressing way to live. . Actually, doing the research that went into writing this, which took years, was exhausting because you’re reading about terrible, traumatic, horrible things, day after day, and yet there’s no other alternative because you have to relate to the material. to tell the story truthfully. I’m proud of the film and could see myself writing something like this one day. I just want to make sure it’s not the only thing I’m doing.

What are your hopes for the film?

I know true crime is very much in the zeitgeist right now. I hope it outgrows the zeitgeist. I hope it becomes a movie we’re talking about in 10, 20 years. And my hope is that it’s received as art, not content, and that’s totally out of my hands. Both Anna and I were very serious about the story we were telling and put a lot of thought and effort into it. I just hope it’s received that way because that’s always been my biggest fear, that it’s like, “Oh, it’s another true crime, serial killer movie of the week.”