Danny Boyle’s ‘Ink’ Earns 5-Minute Ovation At Venice World Premiere

Danny Boyle’s Ink received a five-minute standing ovation this evening at the Venice Film Festival. 

The film, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, screened in Competition this evening with the actors and and filmmakers in attendance. 

Boyle directs the feature from a screenplay written by James Graham (Dear England), based on his Tony-nominated play Ink. O’Connell stars as The Sun newspaper editor Larry Lamb, with Pearce as Rupert Murdoch. Claire Foy is Jules Davies. 

Boyle is also a producer alongside Tessa Ross (Conclave) and Michael Ellenberg (The Morning Show). Ink reunites Boyle and Ross following their collaboration on Slumdog Millionaire. Tracey Seaward (The Two Popes) also produces. Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern, Joe Naftalin, Tonia Davis, Zoe Edwards, James Graham, and Sudie Smyth are executive producers. 

The film charts the rise of the UK’s notorious tabloid newspaper The Sun in the 1970s under the editorship of Larry Lamb, after he was poached from the Daily Mirror in 1969 by then budding media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Boyle, O’Connell, Pearce and Foy all also received enthusiastic welcomes this morning during their official press conference. During that presser, Boyle spoke at length about how Ink had not been an easy film to get over the line. Alongside thanking Studiocanal for supporting the production, he also thanked Venice and its artistic director, Alberto Barbera, for the invite.

“We made it with not a lot of money, and it wasn’t easy for all sorts of reasons. And then you think nobody’s going to see this; it’s about Britain, and it’s about Fleet Street. Nobody knows what Fleet Street is anymore. You say to everybody you’re making a film called Ink. They say, ‘Is it a film about tattoos?’ Boyle joked.

Alwin H. Küchler (Steve Jobs) is the film’s DOP; Gareth Pugh and Carson McColl (28 Years Later) are Production and Costume Designers; Fin Oates (How to Have Sex, Warfare) is the Editor; Gail Stevens & Rebecca Farhall (28 Years Later) cast the film, and the music is by Daniel Pemberton.

Studiocanal fully financed the film and will release it theatrically in Italy, the UK, France, Germany, Poland, the Benelux, Australia and NZ. Netflix has the U.S. distribution rights. 

Netflix will release the film in U.S. cinemas on December 11 before it lands on the streamer on Jan 8. StudioCanal will release the film in the UK on Jan 8.