You've got to hand it to James Franco for picking interesting projects: his newest role will be directing and starring in a film about Jay Sebring, the Hollywood hairstylist and sometime-boyfriend of Sharon Tate, who was murdered by the Manson family.

Beautiful People will be a biopic of Sebring, reports the Guardian, who was murdered with Tate (pictured above) at her and Roman Polanski's home on Cielo Drive in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969. He was reportedly murdered by the Manson family during the home invasion while trying to protect Tate, who was pregnant with Polanski's child and due to give birth in two weeks. 

His celebrity clients had included Warren Beatty, Kirk Douglas, Steve McQueen, and Jim Morrison from The Doors. 

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