Theyre making a movie about Prince Andrews disastrous Newsnight interview

July 10, 2024

In the fall of 2019, Prince Andrew decided to go on camera to tell “his side” of the story regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein had died months beforehand in a New York jail cell, under mysterious circumstances, and following Epstein’s death, there had been renewed pressure on Andrew to explain the decades-long association. Emily Maitlis conducted the interview for BBC’s Newsnight. The interview was a trainwreck from start to finish on Andrew’s side, and completely brilliant journalism from Maitlis’s side. Following the interview, Andrew “stepped down” from being a working royal, although obviously he was still attempting comebacks constantly, to the point where he had to “step down” again this year following his settlement with Virginia Giuffre. I covered the Newsnight interview and the aftermath extensively in 2019.

Well, now it looks like a movie is going to be made about how the interview came to be, what went into it from Emily Maitlis’s side, the BBC’s side and the palace’s side. Remember, the interview happened IN Buckingham Palace with the Queen’s blessing. So… yeah, the movie could be quite interesting. Especially if they get Hugh Grant to play Andrew??

The story of how the BBC obtained the bombshell interview with Prince Andrew about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is to become a film called Scoop, and Hugh Grant is one of the unconfirmed names in the frame to portray the disgraced royal, Deadline has learned.

Acclaimed Your Honor screenwriter Peter Moffat is writing the Scoop screenplay for The Lighthouse Film & TV production company. The news is likely to be greeted with little amusement from Andrew’s mother, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and other members of the Royal Family. Buckingham Palace had hoped that, when it came to the errant royal, the less seen and heard the better.

Moffat explained 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?,” Moffat asked incredulously, as he reflected on the Duke’s arrogance, ignorance, and his charm, which he said “quite often covers up for the bad stuff, that’s what I think.”

[From Deadline]

Peter Moffat stresses to Deadline that the story he wants to tell is more about Emily Maitlis and the BBC team (mostly women) who got the interview and prepared for the interview because they knew how important it was. Of course, Moffat also admits that the royal side of the story will be fascinating too, especially since Andrew’s royal team – including Princess Beatrice and royal staffers – seemed to not even understand how badly the interview had gone for him.

As for the rumored casting of Hugh Grant… I think it would be completely fascinating, honestly. I think Hugh would do a great job! I wonder who will be cast as Emily Maitlis. Hermione Norris would be absolutely perfect (Norris and Maitlis could be sisters, they look and sound so alike) but if they wanted to go younger, I think Carey Mulligan could pull it off really well.

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