ABC Planning Film on Alleged Serial Killer

Though the television industry has recently voiced an aversion to dramatizing sensational true-crime stories, the ABC network is planning a made-for-television movie about Andrew Cunanan, the alleged serial killer whose victims included fashion designer Gianni Versace.

ABC has made a deal with Avenue Pictures--a company involved in producing such films as director Robert Altman’s Oscar-nominated “The Player” and “Short Cuts”--to develop the script for a movie that will focus on Cunanan.

The agreement comes as a surprise after officials at various networks, not wanting to appear exploitative, said they were not interested in a movie regarding the case.

Avenue Chairman Cary Brokaw confirmed his company is finalizing deals with people who have knowledge of Cunanan’s story.

He declined to say who they are, though sources say the company is dealing with law-enforcement officials and acquaintances of the killer.

An ABC spokesman declined to comment, but a network source acknowledged there is a deal to develop the project. However, he also stressed that the network needed to see a completed script before approving production. The earliest the project could air would be next year.

“We’d like to do it as quickly as we can,” Brokaw said. “The intention by all concerned is not to make a headline-exploiting movie. It’s a complicated and tragic story that we want to do justice by.”

Until recently, such fact-based dramatizations have generally fallen out of favor at the networks, in part because TV news programs exhaust interest in them, diminishing potential ratings.

Still, ABC--in the throes of a steep ratings decline--has seemingly become more receptive to such material, in what some see as a desperate attempt to attract viewers.

In April, ABC announced plans to develop a movie about the Heaven’s Gate cult mass suicide, when other networks balked.

Nor is ABC the only network to show interest in fact-based stories. Earlier this week, CBS acquired rights to O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark’s book, “Without a Doubt,” which the network will produce as a TV movie.

“This is a serial killer that’s front-page headline news. I assume that the public’s interested and fascinated in what makes these people tick,” said Peter Locke, a principal in the Kushner-Locke Co., which is behind the Heaven’s Gate film.

Locke said his company is exploring the possibility of its own movie based on Cunanan, and at least three books have been commissioned stemming from the Versace murder.

Other movies related to the case remain possible. Bill Contardi, an agent with the William Morris Agency, is representing the sale of film rights to the Versace biography and said that the book--which will be published next year--will focus on his “glamorous international background.” .