Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle’s upcoming film Ink, which follows Rupert Murdoch’s rise in the UK media landscape, will have its world premiere at Venice Film Festival.
The biographical drama stars Guy Pearce as the Australian media mogul and Jack O’Connell as news editor Larry Lamb, following them during the relaunch of The Sun newspaper in the late 1960s.
Ink also stars The Crown actress Claire Foy as Jules Davies – the wife of controversial editor Lamb – and has been adapted by award-winning playwright James Graham from his stage play of the same name.
Set in 1969, the film will explore how Murdoch and Lamb turned failing British newspaper The Sun into one of the country’s most successful and controversial tabloids.
It has been directed and co-produced by Boyle, who is acclaimed for his distinct and energetic filmmaking style, known for hits including Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire.
The award-winning filmmaker said: “I’ve been to the Biennale many times, but this is my baptism at the film festival – a huge honour to be in a city of such extraordinary art and opening this great festival with my new film Ink.
“1969, the year we first walked on the moon, and the year Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb launched a newspaper that was to change the world far more.”
Boyle said: “Long before Fox News, clickbait, and Truth Social; decades before Twitter, Facebook, Google and Only Fans, these two men created a new tabloid which against all the odds became the biggest selling newspaper in the world.
“Cheeky, irreverent, daring: The super soaraway Sun challenged the establishment and remade our world for the modern era.
“A script by James Graham I felt compelled and privileged to make.”
The stage production of Ink, written by Graham, premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2017 and later transferred to the West End for an almost four-month run.
It made its Broadway premiere in 2019 and picked up two Tony Awards.
The film will have its world premiere on September 2 at La Biennale Di Venezia (The Venice Biennale), which is part of the Venice Film Festival.
