There currently exist dozens, if not hundreds of books, movies, TV series, and documentaries dedicated to rehashing the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, for which former football star and actor O.J. Simpson was accused and acquitted. A quarter-century later, yet another new movie concerning the murders will ask, completely unnecessarily: What if O.J. really didn’t do it?
In The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, Mena Suvari will play Nicole Brown Simpson in a reworking of the story based on the supposed confession of serial killer Glen Rogers. Known as the “The Cross Country Killer” and the “Cassanova Killer,” Rogers is currently awaiting execution in Florida for two other murders. Originally considered by Los Angeles investigators in the Simpon/Goldman killings, Rogers claimed in a 2012 documentary titled My Brother the Serial Killer that O.J. Simpson hired him to break into his estranged wife’s home to steal jewelry, allegedly telling him, “You may have to kill the bitch.”
In an interview with the Daily Beast (which includes a first look image), director Daniel Farrands defends his decision to retell a story that has already been told ad nauseam by explaining that the film is actually about sticking up for victims of domestic violence:
“The murders of Nicole and Ron Goldman remain one of the most enduring and disturbing tragedies of our time. The issues concerning race, domestic violence, and the way we treat victims have sadly not changed all that much in the past 25 years.”
Letting killers control the narrative around the murders does not sound like the best way to go about fairly telling victims’ stories. However, if he means that we still mine the stories of murdered women for salacious details to make sleazy movies of the week, he’s absolutely right.