Danny Boyle is set to direct an adaptation of award-winning play Ink, based on the rise of the Rupert Murdoch empire.
According to Deadline, Guy Pearce is in talks to take on the lead role with Jack O’Connell also in negotiations to star as Larry Lamb, who Murdoch hired to run the Sun in the late 1960s.
The film will be written by original playwright James Graham, whose other screen credits include recent TV drama Brian and Maggie. Ink was a critical hit after it premiered on stage in 2017 going on to win an Olivier award and two Tonys.
The Guardian’s Michael Billington called it a “gripping piece of theatre”.
Murdoch previously referred to Boyle as “a creative genius” on social media after the London Olympics opening ceremony. He also claimed it was “a little too politically correct”.
Boyle recently returned to the zombie franchise he helped to create with 28 Years Later, a box office success earlier this summer making $150m worldwide. The film featured O’Connell in the final scenes and he will be a more prominent feature in the sequel out next year.
Boyle is attached to make the as-yet-confirmed third film dependent on the success of the second which will also see the return of Cillian Murphy.
O’Connell also recently starred in Ryan Coogler’s smash hit horror Sinners and will also soon be seen in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
Pearce received his first Oscar nomination this year for Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and will soon be seen alongside Keira Knightley in mystery thriller The Woman in Cabin 10 and Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars.
