Lou Diamond Phillips has signed on to star in thriller “The Night Stalker,” with production slated to begin this summer, Variety has learned exclusively.

Phillips will take on the role of serial killer Richard Ramirez, dubbed “the Night Stalker” by the Los Angeles press during his 1985 killing spree. The film incorporates Ramirez’s history of violence into a fictional narrative centering on a prison interview between the aging killer and a lawyer attempting to elicit a confession from Ramirez that will save another man from death row.

Ramirez, an avowed Satanist, was convicted of 13 murders and never expressed any remorse. He died on death row in 2013 of complications from B-cell lymphoma.

Megan Griffiths is directing from her own script. Producers are Alisa Tager (“Enemy at the Gates”) and Matthew R. Brady (“Grassroots”) through his MRB Productions shingle.

“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,” Griffiths said. “I could not be more excited to see Lou Diamond Phillips bring this intense character to life.”

Griffiths directed “Lucky Them,” starring Toni Collette and Johnny Depp, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and was distributed by IFC, and “Eden, starring Beau Bridges, which premiered at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival and won the festival’s narrative Audience Award and the Emergent Female Director Award.

Phillips is currently starring in the Netflix series “Longmire” and will be seen in Warner’s Chilean mining survival drama “The 33” alongside Antonio Banderas, James Brolin and Juliette Binoche.

Phillips is represented by Global Artists Agency and Thruline Entertainment. Griffiths is represented by WME and Untitled Entertainment.