Danny Boyle's Ink Recreates The Sun's 1969 Newsroom for Festival Premiere
Danny Boyle's Ink drops the audience into Fleet Street in the autumn of 1969, as a 30-something Rupert Murdoch takes over The Sun newspaper.
Guy Pearce plays Murdoch. Jack O'Connell plays editor Larry Lamb, according to Variety. The film traces Murdoch's rise on London's old newspaper street and his bid to rebuild The Sun.
The film premieres at the London Film Festival. The festival programme lists a 21:00 screening on Monday 12 October 2026, with a second screening on Sunday 18 October 2026, according to the BFI.
It then gets a short cinema run before streaming. It opens in select theatres on 11 Dec. 2026 before landing on Netflix on 8 Jan. 2027 in the United States and Latin America, according to Netflix Tudum. A limited theatrical release like this means a handful of cinemas first, followed by wide availability at home.
Ink is based on the Tony-nominated play of the same name by James Graham. Graham, a British playwright, adapted his own stage work for the screen. The story stays in 1969 London.
Much of that world had to be built from scratch. Production designers Gareth Pugh and Carson McColl, the people in charge of the film's physical look, led the work. The real Sun worked from Bouverie Street in 1969, with its print press rumbling in the basement of the offices.
For the film, the team took over a space in Bromley, U.K., left empty by the local council, and turned it into the newsroom. They tracked down old rotary phones and typewriters to dress the desks. They also secured three fully working Linotype machines, the heavy machines that once cast hot metal into lines of type for printing, according to Variety.
The festival is also hosting a Screen Talk event with Boyle around the new film.
What makes this stand out for viewers with no memory of Fleet Street is the texture. Phones ring. Keys clatter. The press thumps below. Boyle keeps the action inside that crowded room, where a daily paper is put together under deadline.
