If you’re not an expert on the Black Dahlia yet, just you wait. New Line has scored the screen rights to Black Dahlia Avenger, and Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia is hitting theaters in a few weeks. Consider it a cinematic crash-course on the gruesome topic.

Variety reports that ex-L.A. homicide detective Steve Hodel, who wrote Black Dahlia Avenger, will also serve as executive producer on the movie. Ralph Pezzullo is set to write the screenplay. In 1947, an aspiring actress named Elizabeth Short was found brutally cut in half and posed in a bizarre manner, and the killer was never identified. After Steve had retired and his father passed away, he found an album of his old photos, and 2 of them were of the slain actress. Sometimes the truth hurts: all signs pointed directly to his daddy.

"I found out that George Hodel was the prime suspect all along," he said. "The D.A. was days away from arresting him, but the police department was very corrupt. The files were sanitized, the physical evidence disappeared." This definitely falls into the ‘stranger than fiction’ category. More on this disturbingly fascinating flick as it comes.