Anna Kendrick Cast In Movie About A Real-Life Game Show Murderer

The story Anna Kendrick is adapting is a terrifying one.

By Douglas Helm | Published

anna kendrick

It looks like Anna Kendrick is going to have to dodge a date with a serial killer in the near future. The actress is in talks to star in a movie as Cheryl Bradshaw, the woman who nearly went on a date with the serial killer Rodney Alcala after appearing on the 1970s game show The Dating Game.

The story Anna Kendrick is adapting is a terrifying one. Rodney Alcala had murdered five people and had a murder conviction for a 12-year-old girl when he appeared on The Dating Game. Bradshaw ended up choosing him as the winner of the game, which meant she would have ended up going on a chaperoned date with Alcala. Bradshaw called off the date before it could happen due to his odd demeanor. Alcala was eventually sentenced to death for murder in 1980. He was able to stay his execution with appeals multiple times before dying of natural causes last year. At the time of his conviction, investigators had found hundreds of photos of what were believed to be victims in a storage locker. Alcala has been estimated to kill as many as 130 people.

There’s no word yet on who will star opposite Anna Kendrick as the serial killer himself, but the movie will primarily revolve around the events of the game show. If you’re interested in getting a preview of what this creepy event was like, there are videos of the episode available on YouTube. You can see a clip from that below.

In addition to Anna Kendrick, a director has also been attached to the project. Chloe Okuno is on board to direct. Though she may not be a household name yet, she recently debuted her first feature Watcher at Sundance. That movie is about a woman who feels she’s being stalked, so it seems like a movie about this strange game-show event should be right up her alley. The script is a Black List script from Ian MacAllister McDonald.

Anna Kendrick most recently starred in the HBO series Love Life, an anthology about romance and relationships. She hasn’t been doing too many on-screen projects since 2020, so it’ll be good to see her in a starring role again. Right now she does have a few projects in the works alongside The Dating Game movie. She once again is lending her vocal talents to the Trolls universe with The TrollsTopia Movie, which is set to come out in 2023. She’s also set to star in Alice, Darling, a movie about a woman in an abusive relationship whose friends hold an intervention for her. She has also been announced to star in Unsound, a thriller about a state trooper with hearing loss who is tasked with investigating the prison break of a gang leader.

Anna Kendrick is best known for her roles in Up in the Air, Pitch Perfect, and the Trolls franchise. As popular as the true crime genre is and with a magnetic screen presence like Anna Kendrick’s, this The Dating Game-based thriller should definitely be something special when it hits theaters. And if you’re ever on a dating game show and you feel like you should maybe just skip your date with a creepy guy, it seems like that might be the right move.