The Day of the Dolphin originally going to be directed by Roman Polanski for United Artists in 1969, with Polanski writing the script. However, while Polanski was in London, England, looking for filming locations in August 1969, his pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate, was murdered in their Beverly Hills home by disciples of Charles Manson. Polanski returned to the United States and abandoned the project. The following year it was announced Franklin Schaffner would make the movie for the Mirisch Corporation. These plans were frustrated and Joseph Levine ended up buying the project from United Artists for Mike Nichols. The film was mostly shot
Charles Manson to see if Freeman and Roberts were related to each other and found they were not. (Matches between Roberts and Manson were attempted but the results were reportedly "contaminated".) On March 12, 2018, the Kern County Superior Court in California decided in favor of Freeman in regard to Manson's body. Freeman had previously said he would have Manson cremated, and, in fact, did so on March 20, 2018. In 1974, Manson stated his religion was Scientology, and identified as a Scientologist after studying the religion while incarcerated. Manson completed 150 hours of auditing before declaring Scientology "too crazy". In 2009,