AFP–BNS

This year’s Venice Film Festival will open in September with director Danny Boyle’s new film about media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the transformation of the British press that followed his rise, festival organisers announced this week.

Titled Ink, the film tells the story of Murdoch’s 1969 acquisition of the tabloid The Sun and how he turned it into the UK’s best-selling newspaper through a potent mix of sport, sex and right-wing politics.

Australian-born media tycoon Murdoch is portrayed by Guy Pearce, known for films such as Memento and The Hurt Locker, while Jack O’Connell, who recently starred in Sinners, plays Larry Lamb, the newspaper’s first editor under Murdoch’s ownership.

“The story is set in 1969 – the year we first stepped onto the Moon, and the year Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb created a newspaper that changed the world far more,” Boyle said in a joint statement released with the Venice Film Festival.

Based on the stage play of the same name by screenwriter and playwright James Graham, Ink will have its world premiere on the festival’s opening night. The festival runs from 2 to 12 September.

Boyle won the Academy Award for Best Director for Slumdog Millionaire and has directed numerous acclaimed films, including 28 Days Later and its recent sequel, 28 Years Later.

He previously explored another iconic business figure in the 2015 biographical drama Steve Jobs, centred on the Apple co-founder.

The full programme for the Venice Film Festival, one of Europe’s three major film festivals alongside Cannes and Berlin, is expected to be unveiled next week.

Hollywood stars George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn will receive Golden Lion awards for lifetime achievement at this year’s festival.

“This festival has always been my favourite, and receiving the Golden Lion is an enormous honour. I suppose it also probably means I’m getting old, but I’m perfectly fine with that,” Clooney said in a statement released last week.