Chad Michael Murray may be a dream man, but now he's taking on the stuff of nightmares.
After shedding his One Tree Hill heartthrob persona to play a cult leader in Riverdale, Murray is set to portray real-life serial killer Ted Bundy in Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman. His rep confirmed the casting exclusively to E! News. Per Screen Daily, the film "follows the elusive and charming killer and the manhunt that brought him to justice involving the detective and the FBI rookie who coined the phrase 'serial killer.'"
Director Daniel Farrands, who helmed The Haunting Of Sharon Tate starring Hilary Duff, also wrote Boogeyman. (For those keeping track, Duff and Murray previously co-starred in Cinderella Story before taking a turn for darker material with Farrands.)
American Boogeyman also stars Holland Roden as detective Kathleen McChesney, Jake Hays as FBI agent Robert Ressler and Lin Shaye from the Insidious series as Mrs. Bundy. The film will be released theatrically on August 16 with Voltage Pictures.
"Ted Bundy is such a fascinated-ly divisive character and is the true personification of evil," Voltage Pictures president and COO Jonathan Deckter said. "Murray is so talented and expertly captures Bundy's charm and seductive nature, traits that the notorious killer exploited to win the trust of his victims as well as society."
Boogeyman has a companion "Monster Prequel" film, American Boogeyman, that is centered on Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos, played by Peyton List, and also directed by Farrands.
Prior to Murray, Zac Efron most recently portrayed Bundy in Netflix's 2019 film, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. And that's not the only true crime serial killer movie in the works: Evan Peters will transform into Jeffrey Dahmer for Ryan Murphy's upcoming Netflix series, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, while Joshua Jackson hauntingly embodies bloodthirsty neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch in the highly-anticipated Peacock series Dr. Death.
Can't keep track of which A-listers are portraying real-life murderers? Keep scrolling to see all the stars who have played serial killers.