Warner Bros. Discovery Sends Epstein Documentary 'Diabolical' to HBO Max Internationally
Warner Bros. Discovery has acquired international distribution rights to Diabolical: The Epstein Files, bringing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary to HBO Max across Europe and beyond starting 3 September Variety.
The series rolls out first in the U.K., Italy and the Netherlands, with subsequent territory launches to follow. HBO Max holds exclusive all-television and SVOD rights — meaning the streaming platform plus traditional TV — in the U.K. and Italy, including Italian-speaking Switzerland. In the Netherlands, the deal covers exclusive non-standard television and SVOD rights. Across Central and Eastern Europe, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Iceland, Cyprus, the Baltics, the CIS, Malta, Israel and Ukraine, HBO Max secured exclusive SVOD rights alone.
Diabolical: The Epstein Files charts Jeffrey Epstein's ascent, his trafficking network, and his eventual collapse. Epstein was convicted of sex offences and is accused of orchestrating a sustained abuse and trafficking scheme that preyed on underage girls for years. The documentary also scrutinises what its makers describe as failures across policing, the courts and social institutions — lapses that critics say let the abuse persist largely undetected.
The programme was produced and distributed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Jennifer Feller produced; Caitlin Shea served as executive producer. Justin Stevens directed the film IMDb.
Interviewees include survivors Lisa Phillips and Ashley Rubright, Epstein's brother Mark Epstein, and attorney David Schoen. The documentary also features appearances by U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, former U.S. President Donald Trump, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer IMDb.
Myriam Lopez-Otazu, senior VP of international unscripted content and global networks EMEA at Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, was quoted commenting on the acquisition, though the substance of her remarks was not detailed in the report Variety.
The deal gives a public broadcaster's investigative work a streaming home across a wide footprint of European, Middle Eastern and CIS markets — a distribution path that puts a documentary about one of the most scrutinised criminal cases of the past two decades in front of subscribers across three continents.
