Showtime Networks has commissioned a motion picture based on the civil rights era confrontation in Orangeburg that left three young men dead and 27 wounded.

The shooting incident by white state highway patrolmen at then-South Carolina State College on Feb. 8, 1968 has become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

“There’s still disagreement over what happened,” said Frank Beacham, who will serve as a consultant to the producers.

“It’s still controversial. It still has a lot of loose ends to it. It’s a story that’s, in a sense, still playing out almost 40 years later,” he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

The film is in the early stages of development. No decision has been made on a cast or director or when or where production will begin.

“We’ll be coming down in the next two or three weeks to do research and interview some of the key people,” Beacham said.

The trip likely will coincide with the annual commemoration of the event at South Carolina State University, whose largest building is named in memory of the three people who died at the entrance to campus on that fateful evening.

That evening, Beacham was working in the WIS-TV newsroom in Columbia. A native of Honea Path in the Upstate, Beacham attended the University of South Carolina before joining the television station.

“I’ve been hoping to get somebody interested in doing (a film) for a long time, getting it out there as a piece of history,” said Beacham, whose book, “Whitewash: A Southern Journey Through Music, Mayhem and Murder,” was published in 2003.

“I pitched it to a couple of producers, and it eventually got to Showtime,” he said.

The film will be based on two books, Beacham’s and “The Orangeburg Massacre” by Jack Bass and Jack Nelson, first published in 1970.

It will be produced by Nick Grillo, whose producing credits include “Deacons for Defense” (2003); “Conviction” (2002); and “Blind Faith” (1998) for Showtime. He was co-producer of Ted Turner Pictures’ “Gods and Generals” (2003).

It will be written by Frank Military, who wrote “Blind Faith” (1998) and “Deacons for Defense” (2003) as well as TV series including “The Handler” (2003), “Navy NCIS” (2003) and “Miami Vice” (1984). As an actor, Military appeared in several films including “The Last Castle” (2001), “The Doors” (1991) and “Last Exit to Brooklyn” (1989).

Military was awarded the 1999 Frank Selvin award by the Writers Guild of America for “Blind Faith” as the script that best illuminated the spirit of civil rights and liberties.

Showtime Networks Inc. owns the premium television networks Showtime, The Movie Channel and Flix. It is the managing partner of the Sundance Channel. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc.,

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