Netflix has begun production on a film about the controversial bombshell interview that the BBC had conducted with Prince Andrew titled Scoop. The drama will depict the events surrounding the 2019 interview in which Prince Andrew had revealed information about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein. Deadline now reports that the project has added Gillian Anderson, set to play Emily Maitlis, the former lead presenter of Newsnight who conducted the now infamous exchange. It is also reported that Rufus Sewell will be filling the role of the disgraced royal.
The cast also will feature Keely Hawes, who is portraying Amanda Thirsk, the former Private Secretary to Prince Andrew. Billie Piper will be playing Sam McAlister, the Newsnight producer who negotiated and booked the interview, as well as being the author of his memoir, Scoops: Behind The Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, of which the film is based.
The synopsis for Scoop says that it will follow “the inside track of the women that broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the scoop of the decade which led to the catastrophic fall from grace of The Queen’s ‘Favorite son.’ From navigating Palace vetoes to breaking through to Prince Andrew’s inner circle, the high stakes negotiations and intensity of rehearsal, to the jaw-dropping interview itself, Scoop is billed as 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.”
Philip Martin will be directing the Netflix original. Martin shares, “I’m thrilled to be directing Scoop for Netflix and – together with an extraordinary cast – to be bringing Sam McAlister’s revelatory insider’s account to the screen. Uptempo, immersive and cinematic, I want to put the audience inside the breathtaking sequence of events that led to the interview with Prince Andrew – to tell a story about a search for answers, in a world of speculation and varying recollections. It’s a film about power, privilege and differing perspectives and how – whether in glittering palaces or hi-tech newsrooms – we judge what’s true.”