Rupert Murdoch and the world of British tabloid journalism were in the spotlight in Venice on Tuesday as Danny Boyle presented his new film Ink, which opens the 83rd Biennale Wednesday night.
The film, adapted from James Graham’s stage play, depicts Murdoch’s entry into the British newspaper scene, when he acquired the then-failing tabloid The Sun in 1969.
Hiring Larry Lamb as editor, the two combined far-right political reporting and populist rabble to turn the paper into a dark force in British media. Murdoch would take the lessons learned at The Sun and apply them to build his U.S. media empire with The New York Post and Fox News.
Guy Pearce plays Murdoch. Jack O’Connell (Sinners) plays Lamb. Claire Foy (The Crown, Women Talking) co-stars as Jules Davies, an amalgam of female executives who worked under Lamb at The Sun and a character new to the film adaptation.
Boyle said during a press conference that he was careful, as with the stage version not to “monsterize” Rupert Murdoch “because he represented at the time [a] breath of fresh air in what was a very rigid British society. It begins with something that’s fun and different, challenging a rigid order… It was important to us that the audience feels complicit.”
