Prince Andrew’s appearance on BBC’s Newsnight in 2019, which became one of the most significant, notorious and ridiculed interviews in recent years and was a major factor in the royal’s dramatic fall from grace, is to become a feature film.
Scoop, created and written by Peter Moffat (whose series Criminal Justice was remade into HBO’s The Night Of), will tell the inside story behind Andrew’s bombshell hour-long interview with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis. Based on key chapters of a new book by former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, the film is set to tell the story of how Newsnight secured the scoop, starting with the first failed approach to the Palace, through the negotiations with Prince Andrew and his team, the rehearsals, the interview itself and the well-documented and humiliating aftermath, which was famously described as, “a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion.”
“What the hell did he think he was doing? Who got him to do it? Why, when the rest of the world was so appalled, did he think it had gone so well? What kind of a man is this?,” said Moffat. “In researching the film and talking to those on the inside of this extraordinary story, I got the answers to all these questions. They’re provoking, often surprising, sometimes disturbing – and I think they make for a compelling story about power and abuse and journalistic courage.”
The feature will be produced by The Lighthouse Film & TV, launched in 2020 by Hilary Salmon, Radford Neville and Nick Betts – the BBC team behind BAFTA, RTS and Emmy award-winning hits, such as Luther, Criminal Justice, House of Saddam, Three Girls and The Night Of. Voltage TV will be co-producer of the film. Recent Lighthouse productions include two seasons of 61st Street for AMC Networks (also written by Moffat).
During the interview, which focused on Andrew’s relationship with late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of sexual assault by the royal on Virginia Giuffre when she was a minor, he famously claimed that he had remained friends with Epstein, even after he had been released from prison, because he was “too honorable,” said that he couldn’t have been clubbing with Giuffre on a particular night because he was at a branch of restaurant chain Pizza Express with his children, plus asserted that claims he was “sweating profusely” on the night in question couldn’t be true because of a “peculiar medical condition” at the time that prevented him from sweating. Although the interview was understood to have been approved by Queen Elizabeth II, shortly after it was aired and the subsequent backlash that erupted, Andrew’s royal duties were suspended.
“Sam’s book vividly chronicles the moment to moment drama that led to that most revealing and jaw-dropping of TV events. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Sam’s story to life,” said Salmon.
Added McAlister, author of Scoop: “To have a production team of the calibre of The Lighthouse and a writer like Peter Moffat making a feature film is beyond my wildest dreams. I can’t wait to see Peter and The Lighthouse bring this extraordinary story to the screen.”
Source: Hollywood
