Fresh off the horrors of this summer’s box office smash 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle‘s next film will center around a nightmarish tale of real-life corporate intrigue. The film looks to reunite Boyle with 28 Years Later‘s star, Jack O’Connell, who is circling a role in the film, as is Guy Pearce. According to reports, the film is an adaptation of the play Ink, and will deal with a decades-past incident that still reverberates today.

The film will take place in the late 1960s, when Rupert Murdoch (Pearce) purchased the British newspaper The Sun, and hired Larry Lamb (O’Connell) to run it. The two intended to create a new sort of news reporting, kicking off a violent rivalry with fellow broadsheet The Mirror, and would essentially create British tabloid journalism. The Sun‘s ultimate success led to the rise of Murdoch’s media empire, which eventually expanded to television and across the globe, influencing the daily lives of billions of people. The Murdoch empire has been depicted on screen a number of times, with varying degrees of fictionalization: the HBO series Succession centered around the Murdoch-like patriarch (Brian Cox) of a media company, while the 2019 film Bombshell dramatized a sexual harassment scandal at Murdoch’s Fox News; in the latter, Murdoch was played by Malcolm McDowell.

Who Is Danny Boyle?

A veteran of British theater and television, Boyle made his feature directorial debut with 1994’s Shallow Grave, a slick black comedy that was a hit with critics and audiences. Further acclaim followed with 1996’s Trainspotting, an unflinching look at heroin addicts in Edinburgh. A venture to Hollywood produced mixed results in the form of his adaptation of The Beach, but it would be the start of a fruitful collaboration with writer Alex Garland, who penned the hit zombie horror film 28 Days Later and the twisted science fiction thriller Sunshine. Boyle had his biggest success yet with 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire; the film won eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. His subsequent films include 127 Hours, Steve Jobs, and Yesterday. He recently reunited with Garland after nearly two decades for 28 Years Later.

Ink will be adapted for the screen by James Graham, who wrote the 2017 play it is based on. In addition to directing, Boyle will produce the film with Tessa Ross, Michael Ellenberg, and Tracey Seaward; Tonia Davis will executive produce. The production is aiming to begin shooting the film in October.

Ink is in pre-production.

via Collider