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Director Of New Knox Film: Trial Was 'Soap Opera'

The director of a new film based on the trial of Amanda Knox has told Sky News' Entertainment Week the case became a "soap opera".

Michael Winterbottom's The Face Of An Angel is a fictional film inspired by the investigation into the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

Starring Kate Beckinsale and Cara Delevingne, the film focuses on the media circus surrounding the trial of the characters based on Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

BAFTA-winning director, Winterbottom, told Sky News: "It was one of those cases that seemed to catch people's imagination.

"The starting point for the film was, why does the press spend so much time on a story like that? Why do we want to spend so much time watching and reading about stories like that?

"One factor is that the press has a huge amount of space to fill and I think with these kind of trials, they become soap operas, and from a press and TV point of view, it's great that you have a story that can run and run, the characters become like soap opera characters, you can gossip about what happened and there is always speculation.

"I think that's one of the bad aspects of it, that a really important, terrible story becomes trivialised."

Miss Kercher was murdered in the Italian town of Perugia in 2007.

Rudy Guede is serving a 16-year jail sentence for her murder. Knox and Sollecito had been convicted twice, but a final decision from Italy's high court on Friday cleared the pair of murder .

The film also features Spanish actor Daniel Bruhl and British actress Genevieve Gaunt in leading roles with model Delevingne taking on her biggest acting role to date, playing a young student called Melanie.

Winterbottom described Delevingne as being "brilliant" on set and able to "hold her own" among the other, more experienced actors.

The film-maker, whose past credits include A Mighty Heart and 24 Hour Party People, said he chose not to do a straight documentary as fiction can be more "intimate".

"You can tell the facts in a documentary but it's hard to see people in their private moments and hard to see them behaving badly, hard to see their emotions.

"At the heart of this story is a girl who was killed, who has lost a life... whatever happened that night, the simple truth is she lost her life and any chance of happiness.

"I hope that is stronger in our film than certainly it was in the press coverage."

:: The Face Of An Angel is in cinemas now.

:: Entertainment Week is on Sky News, Saturdays at 3.30pm and 8.30pm

:: Also on this week's show, Russell Crowe tells us about going behind the camera for his new film, Nick Broomfield reveals LA's seedy underbelly in his new documentary.

Plus, we discuss what the future holds for One Direction's Zayn Mailk and Jeremy Clarkson. We also review the latest cinema releases, including Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella.