---
title: "Ink trailer: Jack O’Connell and Guy Pearce build a 1969 tabloid in Danny Boyle’s film, out December 11"
url: https://badiyaa.com/ink-trailer-danny-boyle-jack-oconnell/
published: 2026-11-11T13:54:00+00:00
modified: 2026-11-11T13:54:00+00:00
section: Entertainment
publisher: Badiyaa
---

# Ink trailer: Jack O’Connell and Guy Pearce build a 1969 tabloid in Danny Boyle’s film, out December 11

Danny Boyle's Ink trailer shows Jack O'Connell as Larry Lamb and Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch; it opens in US theaters December 11.

Jack O’Connell is Larry Lamb and Guy Pearce is a young Rupert Murdoch in the new trailer for *Ink*, Danny Boyle’s film about the 1969 relaunch of a struggling British daily as a loud, cheap and wildly popular tabloid. Netflix released the trailer on November 10, a month before the film reaches US theaters.

The dates are now fixed. *Ink* opens in select American cinemas on December 11, 2026, and starts streaming on Netflix in the United States and Latin America on January 8, 2027. StudioCanal releases it in UK and Irish cinemas on that same January 8.

Netflix’s own one-line pitch sets the tone: “London, 1969: Two ink-stained mavericks turn a failing newspaper into a brash tabloid sensation, hell-bent on toppling Britain’s powerful press elite.”

## From stage hit to Boyle film

The story started in the theater. Playwright James Graham wrote *Ink* as a stage play in 2017, and it later won a Tony. Graham adapted it himself for the screen, and Boyle, the Oscar winner behind *Slumdog Millionaire*, directs.

The casting trail runs as follows. Pearce and O’Connell signed on in August 2025. Claire Foy joined in October as Jules Davies, a reporter who is a composite of several women who worked on Fleet Street at the time. Filming began in London that October, with extra scenes shot in the Yorkshire towns of Saltaire, Hebden Bridge and Halifax, close to Lamb’s own Yorkshire roots.

One casting detail will delight theater fans. Bertie Carvel, who created the role of Murdoch on stage, appears in the film as Hugh Cudlipp, Lamb’s former boss at a rival paper.

## How the festival run went

Boyle’s film had an unusually busy autumn before the trailer even dropped:

- **September 2:** opened the 83rd Venice festival as its first screening and competed for the Golden Lion.

- **September:** North American premiere at Telluride, a slot at Toronto, and a surprise screening at San Sebastián.

- **October:** UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, plus honors for O’Connell at Middleburg and Montclair.

- **November 30:** Boyle receives the Director Tribute at the Gotham Awards.

Critics have been warm rather than unanimous. The film’s public record lists a 73% positive score from 66 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 78.

One production note may spark debate online. According to the film’s production history, *Ink* uses about 30 seconds of generative AI footage, including mice running across the newsroom floor and animated photographs.

## A crowded December

*Ink* lands on the same day as another actor-turned-filmmaker project Badiyaa has covered: [Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, with Julianne Moore, also opens on December 11](https://badiyaa.com/jesse-eisenberg-the-debut-julianne-moore/). Awards season is warming up too, with [Glenn Close receiving an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards on November 15](https://badiyaa.com/glenn-close-honorary-oscar-governors-awards/).

For viewers deciding between a cinema ticket and the couch, the math is simple. Counting from December 11 to January 8, US audiences get exactly four weeks of theater-only access before the film arrives on Netflix, and British audiences wait the same four weeks to see it at all.

The film runs 116 minutes.

## Further reading

- [Wikipedia: Ink (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_(2027_film))

*Image: Colleen Sturtevant, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons*

*This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*