Will new Patty Hearst biopic again bring movie crews to Hearst Castle?

The story of kidnapped heiress-turned bank robber Patty Hearst will once again be immortalized on the big screen, this time by the director behind “Cop Land,” “Walk the Line” and “Logan.”

Variety reports that James Mangold has agreed to direct a movie based on Jeffrey Toobin’s book “American Heiress.”

Elle Fanning is in talks to play the title role. The 19-year-old actress is the same age Hearst was when she was abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing militant group with members convicted of armed robbery and murder.

Hearst’s story previously has been told in cinematic form in 1988’s “Patty Hearst” and 2004’s “Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst.”

The granddaughter of newspaper titan William Randolph Hearst, Patty Hearst was abducted from her Berkeley apartment in 1974.

A few months later, Patty Hearst was recorded on a bank surveillance video carrying a firearm and yelling commands. A jury later convicted her on charges of bank robbery and using a firearm during a felony, despite her legal defense that she had been coerced by her captors.

Hearst served 22 months before President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. She later received a pardon from President Bill Clinton.

Though Hearst, 63, spent part of her childhood at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, it’s unclear whether the Central Coast landmark will be featured in the film.

If footage is shot there, the Patty Hearst biopic would be only the third production to film at the Castle. The hilltop estate appears in 1960’s “Spartacus” and the 2014 music video for Lady Gaga’s “G.U.Y.”

The Castle does have a tenuous connection to the Hearst trial; the New World Liberation Front bombed it in 1976, as the trial was winding down.

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 6:59 PM with the headline "Will new Patty Hearst biopic again bring movie crews to Hearst Castle?."