Everyone probably has an opinion of Australian mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose media empire has included the New York Post, Wall Street Journal and the creation of the 24-hour conservative news network Fox News, essentially reshaping the political landscape in many ways which, depending on your viewpoint, is a good thing or for many something very dangerous.
But in the new film Ink, which just premiered to open this year’s Venice Film Festival, we get a kind of origin story of Murdoch at a particular point in his quest to own the media world by taking a very big swing and buying the joke of a failing and flailing British newspaper The Sun. On London’s news-central Fleet Street this was laughable and Murdoch — not yet the man who would change the face of news delivery all the way up to and including today’s Trumpian age of misinformation — was taking a shot no one in the newspaper establishment took seriously until it rolled over them like a German tank.
Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director behind Slumdog Millionaire, the 28 Days Later franchise, Trainspotting and many more is the perfect filmmaker to bring this world set in 1969 London as the brash if trash visionary Murdoch and his hand-picked editor-in-chief set out to turn a flop into a top that would eventually bleed into the entire world, an era before the internet and social media demanded faster and furiouser hits and clickbait to get attention, and people got their news by picking sides.
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Adapted by and from James Graham and his Tony- and Olivier-winning 2018 play, Boyle has created a bright, fast-paced and lively film that matches the energy this band of questionable warriors had just as man would walk on the moon, but maybe triggering something that in different ways would turn out to be just as significant in the long run.
This is no ordinary newspaper movie if you are a fan of everything from The Front Page to All the President’s Men, The Post and countless others. Hollywood has been taking on stories set in this world or connected — think the most chilling example, the still incredibly influential 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane — forever. One I think of that may be closer to Ink than any of them is the now somewhat obscure 1937 drama Exclusive, which dealt with the battle for a free and fair press in the face of a gangster buying a rival newspaper and turning it into his own weapon of yellow journalism for self-gain. It showed even then the “truth” was for sale.
Looking in the rearview mirror we see what Murdoch hath wrought, yet the irony Boyle’s film shows is that even Murdoch wasn’t a fan of what he started, somewhat embarrassed except when with each shocking edition the numbers started climbing and the goal of being first and toppling the untoppable Daily Mirror was creeping closer to reality.
Ink really gets going when Murdoch (convincingly and brilliantly played by Guy Pearce) chooses the man he wants to lead the charge, a little-known Fleet Streeter named Larry Lamb (a towering Jack O’Connell), who had a talent worthy of a top role on a paper but never got the opportunity. Murdoch makes the pitch to him at journalist hangout restaurant Rules in the film’s compelling opening scene, where Lamb gives his vision with a twist on the classic mantra of writing a story — who, where, when, what and why — but says that the natural “why”, seemingly the end of the story, is really just the beginning with a sixth rule to go by: What’s next? This takes the creation of the stories that will grab the public with a way to move it forward, keep the presses running, and keep the money coming in.
Murdoch makes Lamb a financial offer he can’t refuse, giving him the chance to start a revolution, and soon we see The Sun emphasizing stories on murders, sports, TV and most vividly sex. This became the paper, ostensibly a “family paper” at one time, where Lamb’s idea was to include topless models mixed in with the “news.” Despite the initial outrage, including a furious Murdoch’s when that first issue hit the streets featuring a topless girl (Abigail Amin), was immediately tempered when the numbers started soaring. Seeing the reaction on Murdoch’s face as Pearce sees the results is priceless and tells you everything you need to know about what truly motivates him: money, money and more money, consequences be damned. This look at how it all began makes Ink a fascinating document and precursor of what was to follow, demonstrated in a stunning montage of what this snapshot in time has led us to all the way to now. Chilling.
Right from the opening credits using the tabloidy red font of The Sun to announce the participants, Boyle and his team have given Ink a distinct visual style preparing us for what is to unfold, eye-catching headlines and stories that aren’t necessarily what we need in a world where truth telling is an endangered species, but rather what we want. O’Connell and Pearce have never been better and really come to play here. It is a thrilling match to see them go toe to toe and watch as the power dynamics between them shift. A tragic incident, close to the bone for Murdoch, becomes a game-changing decision for Lamb in publishing a personal and devastating event in the life of Murdoch’s top lieutenant as his wife is kidnapped. Jonathan Hyde as that man is very good here, as is Claire Foy with a choice role as the rare female journalist of the time who could actually get into the mud and play with the boys. Her role is not based on a single person but rather a compilation, but she nails it.
So does Boyle, in fact, who finds this material more ripe for his whip-smart, in-your-face filmmaking style than a previous well-known figure, Steve Jobs, did in his 2015 biopic of that very different visionary despite an admirable try and fine acting. Here all the cylinders are firing, and it is thrilling stuff indeed.
Producers are Tessa Ross, Michael Ellenberg and Tracey Seaward.
Title: Ink
Festival: Venice (opening-night film)
Distributor: Netflix
Release dates: December 11, 2026 (theatrical); January 8, 2027 (streaming)
Director: Danny Boyle
Screenwriter: James Graham
Cast: Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, Claire Foy, Jonathan Hyde, Lucy Russell, Abigail Amin, Bertie Carvel, Brian Gleeson, Christopher Fulford, Patrick Kennedy, Blake Harrison, Georgie Henley
Rating: TBD
Running time: 1 hr 56 mins
