Danny Boyle Brings 'Ink' to Venice, Warns of AI Threat to Journalism

Boyle Opens Venice with 'Ink'

Danny Boyle's latest film,Ink, opened the 83rd Venice Film Festival on Wednesday evening. The film, adapted from James Graham's 2017 stage play, depicts Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of the then-failing tabloidThe Sun in 1969. Guy Pearce plays Murdoch, Jack O'Connell portrays Larry Lamb, the editor Murdoch hired to turn the paper around, and Claire Foy co-stars as Jules Davies, a character new to the film adaptation described by The Hollywood Reporter as an amalgam of female executives who worked under Lamb.

Venice festival director Alberto Barbera described the film as an "account of publisher Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of the daily newspaper The Sun, which he entrusted to the unscrupulous Larry Lamb, turning it into Britain's best-selling tabloid at the expense of its rival, The Mirror." According to Deadline, Boyle produces alongside Tessa Ross and Michael Ellenberg, with Tracey Seaward also producing. The film reunites Boyle and Ross following their collaboration onSlumdog Millionaire.

Boyle's Concerns About AI and Journalism

At a press conference on Wednesday, Boyle raised concerns about the future of journalism in the age of AI. He noted that one of the last print works in Watford, used as a location for the film, had shut down as they were wrappingInk. Asked whether the printed press celebrated in the film would survive digital pressures, Boyle said the more worrying concern was AI's potential to replace journalists.

"Journalism is one of the great uprights of any civilization," Boyle said, as reported by Deadline. "Within that bunch of people, there are lots of different people... there are those who stand up to power and speak truth to power, and to have those people in society is really important."

"The danger with the tech giants and their AI is that they will be able to replace journalism," he added. "They'll be able to have an AI journalist who's much more efficient, cheaper, etcetera, and will that AI journalist speak truth to the power that created it?"

Boyle also expressed gratitude to Studiocanal for backing the production and to Venice and its artistic director Alberto Barbera for the invitation. He acknowledged the film was not easy to finance, noting it was made "with not a lot of money," as Deadline reported.

Cast Insights and Murdoch's Reaction

Pearce recounted that Boyle arranged for the cast to meet with real-life journalists and print workers who had worked onThe Sun during its heyday. "It made it real and vivid, and you could actually see their enthusiasm in remembering the time and the living on the edge experience that they all had," Pearce said, according to Deadline.

The Hollywood Reporter quoted Pearce revealing that Murdoch himself was pleased with the film's casting. "I had some messaging with Elizabeth [Murdoch], his daughter, and she said 'Dad's very happy that you are playing him,'" Pearce said, though he noted Murdoch had not yet seen the film at that point.

Graham, the screenwriter, said Murdoch had seen the stage play twice, in the West End and on Broadway, but had not given his opinion. "He's very good at not giving anything away, which I think is one of his secrets," Graham said.

Not a Period Piece, Boyle Says

Boyle said he was careful, as with the stage version, not to "monsterize" Murdoch "because he represented at the time [a] breath of fresh air in what was a very rigid British society," as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. He also argued thatInk was not merely a period piece but "about the modern world," showing trends in media that shape the current world.

Foy told The Hollywood Reporter she found plunging into the world of '60s tabloid journalism "really intoxicating," admitting to feeling "quite jealous" of Fleet Street reporters. "They had power at their fingertips," she said. "They knew what they wrote would be what people read and what people believed."

Release Plans

Studiocanal fully financed the film and will release it theatrically in Italy, the UK, France, Germany, Poland, the Benelux, Australia, and New Zealand, Deadline reported. Netflix will release the film in S. cinemas on December 11 before it lands on the streamer on January 8, and StudioCanal will release it in the UK on January 8.