Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch movie ‘Ink’ to open Venice Film Festival

A new film about the rise of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and “The Sun” editor Larry Lamb has been selected to open the Venice International Film Festival, organizers said Thursday. Directed by “Trainspotting” filmmaker Danny Boyle, “Ink” is an adaptation of James Graham’s acclaimed play, which dramatizes Murdoch’s 1969 acquisition of the daily newspaper “The Sun.”

Guy Pearce plays Murdoch and Jack O’Connell plays Lamb in the film about how they turned the paper into Britain’s most influential tabloid. Claire Foy also co-stars.

“Long before Fox News, click bait, and Truth Social; decades before Twitter, Facebook, Google (and) Only Fans, these (two) men created a new tabloid which against all the odds became the biggest selling newspaper in the world,” Boyle said in a statement. The paper, he added, "challenged the establishment and remade our world for the modern era.”

Boyle said it was a huge honor to be selected, noting that, “I’ve been to the Biennale many times, but this is my baptism at the film festival.”

“Ink” will be playing in competition at the 83rd edition of the festival, which kicks off on September 2. The full slate of films vying for the Golden Lion is expected to be revealed next week.

The play opened in London in 2017, and went to Broadway in 2019, where it was nominated for, and won, multiple Tony Awards.

“I started writing this way before Trump, way before Brexit,” Graham told The Associated Press in 2017. “But I knew I wanted to capture what was clearly in the air about populism."

FILE - Director Danny Boyle appears at the World premiere of "28 Years Later" in London on June 18, 2025. (Photo by Millie Turner/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Director Danny Boyle poses in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 6, 2017. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — A fire at an orphanage near the Algerian capital on Thursday has killed 11 children and injured 19 others, authorities said.

Algeria’s Civil Protection agency said the fire broke out around 3:30 a.m. at the two-story childcare institution in Mohammedia, in the eastern suburbs of Algiers.

The ages of the victims have not been released by authorities, who did not report any adult fatalities or injuries. Authorities have not said what caused the fire.

Five children with reduced mobility were safely evacuated by rescue teams, while several of the injured were transported to a hospital specializing in burns, said Lt. Col. Nassim Bernaoui, head of communications for the Civil Protection department.

Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune expressed his condolences to those impacted by the fire which happened on Algeria’s National Children’s Day.

“It is with a heart resigned to the will of Allah that I learned of the death of children and the injuries suffered by other children of Algeria following the fire that broke out in a childcare institution,” said Tebboune, who is on an official visit to Berlin.

Algeria has been experiencing a heatwave that has sparked nearly 1,000 fires in recent days, according to the Civil Protection agency.

Policemen stand outside the fire damaged orphanage in Mohammedia, near Algiers, Algeria, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo)

Policemen stand outside the fire damaged orphanage in Mohammedia, near Algiers, Algeria, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo)

A view of the fire damaged orphanage in Mohammedia, near Algiers, Algeria, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo)