‘Scandal’ Star Bellamy Young Joins ‘Night Stalker’ Movie (EXCLUSIVE)

Bellamy Young has signed on to star in thriller “The Night Stalker” opposite Lou Diamond Phillips, Variety has learned.

Young, who portrays first lady of the United States Mellie Grant in ABC’s “Scandal,” will take on the role of a defense attorney in the movie. Her character was 15 years old and living in Los Angeles during the 1985 killing spree by Richard Ramirez, dubbed “the Night Stalker” by the Los Angeles press.

The film incorporates Ramirez’s history of violence into a fictional narrative, which centers on a prison interview between the aging killer and a lawyer attempting to elicit a confession from Ramirez that will save another man from death row.

Variety reported on June 10 that Phillips had been cast as Ramirez, an avowed Satanist who was convicted of 13 murders and never expressed any remorse. He died while on death row in 2013.

Megan Griffiths is directing from her own script. Producers are Alisa Tager (“Enemy at the Gates”) and Matthew R. Brady (“Grassroots”) through his MRB Productions shingle.

“In addition to our amazing leading lady, I also could not be more thrilled about collaborating with so many female heads of department,” Griffiths said. “I know first hand how under-represented women are on a typical film set, which has no correlation with the talent and drive of the women I have had the pleasure to work with. Things are changing, and I am proud to be a part of the ongoing shifting of paradigms.”

Young is represented by Paradigm and Schreck Rose Dapello & Adams.

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