Black Oasis is inspired by inside-Hollywood pics like Gods and Monsters and Sunset Blvd. "This is a story in the 'stranger than fiction' style of Hollywood Babylon, and a little-known chapter in the seedy underbelly of that era," producer Hilary Shor said.

Hit and Run partners Shor and Tony Smith are producing the biopic. Shooting will begin fall 2007.

Update: Rose says (November 2007):

Sadly, we have hit a big snag with the Writer's strike that's on now. Delays can cause films to lose actors from, locations etc. However, I can say that it is one of the best scripts I have ever read. I cannot wait until all of the elements are rescheduled.

Susan Cabot's personal life included a well publicised relationship with King Hussein of Jordan in 1959, and two marriages which both ended in divorce.

Cabot's son, Timothy Scott Roman, who suffered from dwarfism and psychological problems, bludgeoned her to death in her home in Encino, California. He was subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter and received a three year suspended sentence.

• On Susan Cabot
"Cabot was about four-foot-ten. I'm not that short, but I'm not super-tall, she's certainly a lot smaller, and she'd wear these eight-inch platforms."

• On Susan Cabot
"She had just such a sad life and she was sure she'd be an A-list actress. She was engaged to King Hussein until he found out her real name was Harriet Shapiro and that she was Jewish."

• On Susan Cabot
"Her son had dwarfism and she put him through all of these experimental treatments with shots and hormones. It was such a bizarre relationship with them. He became obsessed with Bruce Lee, hence the nunchucks, that made him feel masculine but he didn't look masculine because of all the hormones. She was a very suffocating mother."

• On Susan Cabot
"What�s really cool about it is as she got older, she kind of got... What�s going to be easy about doing that aging make-up is she kind of went crazy and was really obsessed with getting older, so she would just pile on like crazy amounts of make-up. So that�ll help already. But like really cool, like crazy green eye shadow and just really, really, really pancakey.
But it�s also cool, as she got older, she kind of started going nuts, and confusing her real life with these crazy old movies like Wasp Woman and these other really fantastical movies which had all these like weird costumes. So I�ll get to be playing her in those movies. All those sets. Stephan Elliott did write it and is directing this, so obviously he can handle these crazy sets and all that stuff. And of all things, she was killed by her son with nunchucks. Kind of an ignominious death, if you will."

• The film show Susan Cabot on the set of her movies so Rose will not only transform herself into Cabot, but also into her characters.