Ink: Danny Boyle Brings Rupert Murdoch to the Opening of Venice 2026

Ink, the new film by Danny Boyle, will open the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. Its world premiere will take place on September 2 in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema, and the film will compete for the Golden Lion.

The festival, directed by Alberto Barbera, will continue until September 12. The rest of the programme will be announced later in July, but the choice of opening film already points in a clear direction: Venice will begin by examining the moment when news discovered that it could become entertainment, a product and an instrument of power all at once.

From the Stage to the Printing Press of Power

Written by James Graham and adapted from his play of the same name, Ink reconstructs Murdoch’s acquisition of the British newspaper The Sun. In 1969, the publisher placed Larry Lamb in charge of the paper, and Lamb transformed it into the United Kingdom’s best-selling tabloid, overtaking its rival The Mirror and reshaping the country’s media landscape.

The decisive shift therefore involved more than the ownership of a newspaper. Murdoch acquired an existing structure and changed its function, its language and its relationship with the public. The promise was to give people the news they wanted; the result was a publication capable of influencing the entire British information system.

Guy Pearce plays Rupert Murdoch, Jack O’Connell portrays Larry Lamb, while Claire Foy takes on the role of Jules Davies.

The Tabloid Model Came Before the Platforms

Boyle has explicitly connected the story of The Sun to the present day. The director noted that Murdoch and Lamb built their model before Fox News, clickbait, Truth Social and the major digital platforms. In the same year, 1969, in which humanity reached the Moon, Boyle argues, the two men were launching a newspaper destined to change the world in an even more profound way.

Boyle makes clear the continuity he intends to explore: the infrastructure changes from the tabloid to the platform, while the competition for attention remains central. The Sun organized that competition through headlines, images and newspaper distribution, just as today’s digital services use data, recommendations and the constant measurement of audience reactions.

Ink will be released in Italian cinemas by Lucky Red. Before that, however, it will open Venice with a story that begins among printing presses, aggressive headlines and copies sold. The ink of 1969 has long since dried; the mark it left on our idea of information is still fresh.