Amanda Knox accused of 'profiting from murder' by Meredith Kercher's family over Disney-backed trial drama
4 November 2024, 09:11 | Updated: 4 November 2024, 09:20
The family of murdered student Meredith Kercher have branded a new Disney-backed drama "insensitive" as filming for the courtroom drama gets underway in Rome.
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The drama, which is set to document the trial of the murdered 21-year-old British student, has led her family denounce the production - as well as then-defendant Amanda Knox.
Knox was jailed for fatally stabbing Kercher, who was on an Italian exchange from the University of Leeds, in their shared apartment in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.
US citizen Knox was later acquitted of the murder in 2015 due to a lack of evidence, having serving just four years of her sentence.
Now, the lawyer for Kercher's family has accused the American of "profiting from murder", as filming for the new TV series gets underway in Rome.
Knox’s journey to freedom is now set to be told over the course of eight episodes for streaming service Hulu, a subscription platform owned by Disney.
Shooting for the trial drama began in the hilltop town of Orvieto, north of Rome, earlier this month.
Ms Knox, a US citizen, was widely dubbed 'Foxy Knoxy' following her 2007 trial.
Her conviction and subsequent acquittal, alongside her boyfriend of a week - then 23-year-old computer programming student Raffaele Sollecito, followed a series of retrials and flip-flop verdicts.
Now, Kercher's family say it is "difficult to understand" how the show "serves any purpose" but rehashing painful memories of the past.
Read more: Amanda Knox to return to Italian court to defend herself against 16-year-old slander conviction
Francesco Maresca, the lawyer representing the Kercher family, went further and accused Knox of repeatedly seeking to profit from the victim’s murder.
“On the one hand Amanda says the trial created so much suffering for her but then she tries to have it all – the fame and the money,” Mr Maresca said.
“She continues to make money from it. This time she has no qualms about doing it in Perugia, one of the least appropriate places to return to 17 years since Meredith’s death," the lawyer insisted.
“Knox is only interested in the profits she continues to make from an affair on which she should be silent.”
Kercher’s sister, Stephanie, has now questioned the purpose of the series, releasing a statement on behalf of the family on Sunday.
“Meredith will always be remembered for her own fight for life, and yet in her absence, her love and personality continue to shine,” she said on Sunday.
“Our family has been through so much and it is difficult to understand how this serves any purpose.”
The production is reported to be filming in the town of Perugia from Tuesday untill the end of this week after being greenlighted by US giant Hulu in January.
Locations used as part of the new series will also include the Via della Pergola apartment where Kercher was murdered.
The series is also notably backed by Alt Ending Productions – the production company run by Bill Clinton’s former intern Monica Lewinsky.
27-year-old actress, Grace Van Patten, has already been cast as Knox, with Hulu saying the show is “based on the true story of how Knox was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, and her 16-year odyssey to set herself free”.
