The film is “inspired” by Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 Newsnight interview.
Netflix has released a handful of first-look stills from upcoming film Scoop, which the streamer says is “inspired” by Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 Newsnight interview.
The film – which does not yet have a release date – stars Rufus Sewell as Andrew and Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis, both of whom can be seen in the new images.
Meanwhile, other stills show Billie Piper as Sam McAlister, the Newsnight guest booker who secured the interview, and Keeley Hawes as Amanda Thirsk, the former private secretary to Prince Andrew.
The film was first announced in early 2023 and is based on McAlister’s memoir Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.
Your first look at Scoop. A new film inspired by Prince Andrew’s infamous Newsnight interview. Starring Gillian Anderson, Keeley Hawes, Billie Piper and Rufus Sewell. pic.twitter.com/e5zX8mdDnd
— Netflix (@netflix) February 5, 2024
It promises to tell the story of the women who broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the interview of the decade “that led to the catastrophic fall from grace of the Queen’s ‘favourite son'”.
The synopsis continues: “Scoop is the insider account of the inner workings of the Palace and the BBC, twin bastions of the British establishment.
“Spotlighting the journalists whose tenacity and guts broke through the highest of ceilings – and into the inner sanctum and calculations of a man with everything to lose.”
When the film was announced, McAlister said it was “beyond [her] wildest dreams” to be working with the “extraordinary cast”, and added that watching Piper play her would “be a pinch myself moment”.
The cast for Scoop also includes Sex Education‘s Connor Swindells as British photojournalist Jae Donnelly and Vigil‘s Romola Garai as then-Newsnight editor Esme Wren.
There are also roles for The Crown‘s Lia Williams as BBC’s director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth, New Tricks star Amanda Redman as McAlister’s mother Netta and Wolf Hall’s Charity Wakefield as HRH Princess Beatrice.
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Scoop is not the only dramatisation of the infamous interview that will make its way to streaming, with a TV series titled A Very Royal Scandal coming to Prime Video at an as yet unspecified date.
The three-parter will star Michael Sheen (Good Omens) as Prince Andrew and Ruth Wilson (The Woman in the Wall) as Maitlis, and follows the latter’s “professional and personal journey as a Newsnight journalist, leading up to her acclaimed interview”.
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