Lou Diamond Phillips has signed on to play infamous serial killer Richard Ramirez in the upcoming indie thriller The Night Stalker.  The film, inspired by true events, centers on a fictional lawyer’s attempt to get a death row confession from Ramirez in order to save another convict’s life.Ramirez terrorized Los Angeles in 1984 and 1985 with his trail of murders, eventually being dubbed ‘The Night Stalker’ by the local press.  He was convicted on 13 counts of murder and 5 attempted murders, and lived out his life on death row, succumbing to lymphoma in 2013.

Phillips, star of the classic La Bamba, most recently appeared in the A&E drama Longmire (which is headed to Netflix for its next season).  He’ll also be seen in the upcoming Chilean mining disaster drama The 33 alongside Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects), Antonio Banderas (The Expendables 3), and Juliette Binoche (The Clouds of Sils Maria) .

The Night Stalker will be directed by Megan Griffiths from her own script.  Says the writer-director:

I grew up in Southern California and spent the summer of 1985 in the shadow of Ramirez, and it has been a fascinating process to delve into the history in writing this script.  I could not be more excited to see Lou Diamond Phillips bring this intense character to life.

Production is slated to begin this summer. No release date has been set for the film yet.