Netflix Bets 'Ink' Can Win Oscars After Venice Debut — SkimNews
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- Netflix is positioning Danny Boyle's "Ink" — James Graham's adaptation about Rupert Murdoch's 1969 takeover of The Sun — as an Oscar contender, launching at the 83rd Venice Film Festival where it drew a four-minute standing ovation before a December theatrical and January streaming release.
- Guy Pearce plays a brash young Murdoch with a supporting-actor pitch built on his recent "Brutalist" nomination, while Jack O'Connell plays editor Larry Lamb with best-actor momentum from "Sinners" and the "28 Years Later" films.
- The adapted screenplay bid leverages Graham adapting his own Tony-nominated play — a template "One Night in Miami" walked in 2020 with its Venice launch, playwright's own adaptation, and an acting nomination for Leslie Odom Jr.
- The crafts campaign leans on Oscar-winning sound designer Johnnie Burn ("The Zone of Interest"), composer Daniel Pemberton, and production designers Carson McColl and Gareth Pugh, who rebuilt a vanished Fleet Street on screen.
- "Ink" will compete for voter attention against Netflix's stacked fall slate of "La Bola Negra," "The Adventures of Cliff Booth," "Possible Love," "Gentle Monster," and "The Mosquito Bowl."
Why it matters: "Ink" gives Netflix a dual-acting-and-screenplay Oscar play in the mold of "One Night in Miami," but the company's stacked fall slate — five other titles including "The Adventures of Cliff Booth" and "The Mosquito Bowl" — means "Ink" competes with Netflix itself for the screeners, Q&As, and voter attention that Oscar campaigns require.
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