Coming attraction : a film on Rupert Murdoch's battles with Harold Evans
Rupert Murdoch's battles with ex-Sunday Times editor Harold Evans are to be turned into a film that will also talk about the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World.
Rupert Murdoch: clashes with Evans.
The US magazine Variety says that a UK company, What's It all About? Productions, has acquired film and TV rights to Evans's bestselling book "Good Times, Bad Times."
Evans, married to Tina Brown of the Daily Beast, and now New York-based, recently updated the account of his fraught relationship with Murdoch, who bought the Times papers in 1981.
Evans, editor of the Sunday Times for 14 years, resigned from the company over what he considered to be unacceptable pressure from Murdoch regarding editorial independence ,
Leon Lecash, creative director of What's It all About?, is optimistic that the movie will start filming near the end of the year, said Variety.
An actress will play Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a cameo role. Earlier this year, Thatcher archive papers revealed that a secret meeting took place between she and Murdoch at which she was informed of his intention to bid for the U.K. newspaper.
Murdoch had always denied the existence of any meeting with Thatcher.
Lecash said recent stories surrounding Rupert Murdoch's companies in the UK and in America "had brought the events of almost 30 years ago back into sharp focus."
He told Variety he realised "the time could never be better to bring this story of ultimate justice and spiritual vindication to the screen."