Script on Menendez Slayings Waits in the Wings at CBS : Television: Tentatively titled miniseries is being written as the trial of two brothers charged in parents’ deaths unfolds.

Opening statements in the trial of Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez are not expected to take place for at least two weeks, but casting and pre-production are already in the works for a CBS miniseries based on the 1989 slaying of their parents, video executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty.

Zev Braun, executive producer of the tentatively titled “Murder in Beverly Hills,” said such preparations are possible because “we will not put anything into this story that doesn’t come from the public record, even if we have to change not only the writing of the script, but the shooting of it.”

Braun anticipates beginning filming “as soon as we see the way in which the trial is going.” No airdate has been set.

A script for the first 3 1/2 hours has already been written, Braun said. The first two hours will trace the family’s life up to the killings.

The second two hours will primarily focus on the legal machinations of the case, including the battle over the admissibility of taped sessions between Erik Menendez and Beverly Hills psychologist Jerome Oziel, where Erik allegedly admitted the crimes. The final half-hour is reserved for the trial itself.

Jury selection began June 14 in Van Nuys Superior Court. The trial is expected to take about five months.

Leslie Abramson, the lead attorney for 22-year-old Erik Menendez, has said both brothers will claim they killed their parents in self-defense out of fear that their mother and father were intent on killing them. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Although starting a project of this nature before the resolution of a trial is ripe with potential problems, Braun is countering by only using facts already on public record and having the script rewritten as new facts surface.

“We don’t know whether they are going be judged to have been abused or not,” Braun said. “Once the judgment is rendered, we will put that into the story, even if we have to reshoot pieces of it.”

For his source material, Braun purchased the rights to an October, 1990, Vanity Fair article by Dominick Dunne, who is also contributing to the project. Neither of the Menendez brothers has been interviewed by Dunne or screenplay writer Phil Rosenberg.

Braun has also acquired the rights to the story of Judalon Smyth, Oziel’s former lover who told police of the existence of the taped sessions with the psychologist. Unlike some producers who have purchased rights from defendants, Braun has not done so in this case.

“There is no way that we would want their rights, nor would we pay them,” said Braun, whose Zev Braun Productions is producing the miniseries in association with TriStar Television.

Braun, whose credits include executive-producing CBS’ late 1980s Vietnam War drama “Tour of Duty,” stressed that this project is not another example of a story being ripped from newspaper headlines and quickly turned into a TV drama. He initiated conversations in late 1989.

“I went to CBS with TriStar and they said it looks like it would make a terrific miniseries, but we should wait to see if the boys are arrested,” Braun said.

Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez were arrested in March, 1990. Braun began work on the project later that month.

CBS may not be the only network with a project based on the Menendez deaths. NBC has commissioned a script on the case for a possible made-for-TV movie of its own.

The growing tendency to turn real-life crimes into made-for-TV movies and miniseries has drawn fire from many circles. Some members of Congress have expressed concern over the violence. Mental-health professionals object to glorification of lawbreakers and fear others will commit similar crimes for their cliched 15 (or 120) minutes of fame.

“We hope to be doing just the opposite,” said Braun, who has likened this project to Greek tragedy. “There are certain things all people will do under pressure--financial pressure, greed, avarice, sexual pressure. All human beings are frail and not totally virtuous. I’m saying that hopefully we’ll come away with the understanding that you just push the envelope only so far.”