Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell have signed up to star in a movie about Prince Andrew’s bombshell Newsnight interview.

In November 2019, the British royal sat down with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis to discuss his friendship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and deny allegations that he had sex with one of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking victims, Virginia Giuffre.

It was announced in July last year that a Netflix movie that looked into how the Newsnight team secured the sensational car-crash interview was in development, and the cast was unveiled on Tuesday to mark the start of production.

Anderson has signed up to star as Maitlis alongside Sewell as the Duke of York, while Keeley Hawes will play private secretary Amanda Thirsk, and Billie Piper will portray former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, who negotiated and secured the bombshell booking.

Scoop has been described as a “thrilling behind-the-scenes account” of the inner workings of Buckingham Palace and the BBC. According to the logline, the drama will depict the inside track of the women that broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the scoop of the decade that led to the catastrophic fall from grace of Queen Elizabeth II’s so-called “favourite son”.

Scoop will be directed by Philip Martin, who has helmed episodes of Netflix’s royal drama The Crown, from a script by Peter Moffat, who is adapting McAlister’s 2022 book, Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.

“Uptempo, immersive and cinematic, I want to put the audience inside the breath-taking sequence of events that led to the interview with Prince Andrew – to tell a story about a search for answers, in a world of speculation and varying recollections. It’s a film about power, privilege and differing perspectives and how – whether in glittering palaces or hi-tech newsrooms – we judge what’s true,” Martin said in a statement.

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