After Frost/Nixon, it’s Maitlis/Andrew
Hugh Grant tipped for film based on TV car-crash
PRINCE Andrew’s bombshell Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is to be made into a movie.
Scoop will tell the inside story of how a BBC team secured the infamous interview in November 2019, months after Epstein was found dead in his cell.
Prince Andrew’s forensic examination by Miss Maitlis, 51, led to him being forced out of public duties and stripped of his military titles and royal patronages. The duke, who could be played by Hugh Grant, was also absent from the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last month, citing Covid.
The movie has echoes of Frost/ Nixon, the 2008 film about David Frost’s interviews with disgraced President Richard Nixon starring Michael Sheen and Frank Langella.
In the same fashion screenwriter Peter Moffat, who wrote BBC series Silk, will pen the Andrew screenplay for The Lighthouse film and television production company. Mr Moffat told Deadline that Scoop is ‘about how the BBC’s Newsnight team got the scoop, then the actual filming of it,’ adding: ‘The other thing is, why did he agree to do it?
‘How was it that he decided it was a good idea to do a great big long interview with Emily Maitlis on the BBC?’ The film is based on chapters from ex-Newsnight producer Sam McAlister’s book, Scoops: Behind The Scenes Of The BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, which was serialised in the Daily Mail.
Miss McAlister confirmed the news on Twitter, writing: ‘Can’t actually breathe with the excitement!’ The car-crash interview saw Miss Maitlis grill the royal on his friendship with billionaire Epstein and allegations from Virginia Roberts, who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. The prince has always denied wrongdoing.
The project does not yet have a director, but shooting will begin in November. No real BBC footage will be used.