On the heels of the successful debut of The Craiglist Killer, Lifetime TV has announced the premiere of another movie based on a true crime story. Lifetime Television's Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy will premiere on Monday, February 21, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, according to a January 7, 2011 press release from Lifetime. Hayden Panettiere and Marcia Gay Harden star in the Lifetime Original Movie about the international headline-grabbing story of the infamous case of the American exchange student accused by Italian authorities of brutally killing her roommate, Meredith Kercher.
Lifetime TV movie about Amanda Knox causes controversy
Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy is about Amanda Knox (Hayden Panettiere), the Seattle honors student accused of murdering her college roommate Meredith Kercher (Amanda Fernando Stevens) in 2007 with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (Paolo Romio) and acquaintance Rudy Guede (Djirbi Kebe). The movie poses the question of whether Knox actually committed the crime or was herself a victim.
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The real life Amanda Knox, and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, appeared in the Italian Court of Appeals in December 2010. Slideshow of pictures of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito
Video CBS report on Amanda Knox in Italian prison from Rome, Italy
Knox was referred to as 'Foxy Knoxy' by her Italian prosecutor, Guiliani Mignnini (Vincent Riotta). The press painted Knox as an oversexed remorseless killer. Her two year trial led to her conviction and she was sentenced to 26 years in jail.
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Academy Award winning actress Marcia Gay Harden portrays Edda Mellas, Amanda Knox's mother.
The movie will be followed by an hour-long documentary, Beyond the Headlines: Amanda Knox. The documentary takes viewers inside the Italian legal system, with viewpoints by Amanda's mother, father, friends, investigators, prosecutors and legal scholars. Amanda Knox in locked up abroad, a foreigner convicted and being held in a foreign country.
The documentary is set the Amanda's hometown of Seattle and the town of Perugia, Italy. The film explores the legal evident and the allegations against Amanda Knox and what really happened to Meredith Kercher on November 2, 2007.
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Comments
This is a killer article, thanks.
'Amanda Knox in locked up abroad, a foreigner convicted and being held in a foreign country.'
And your point is? Well she did murder a foreigner in a foreign country, using two foreign accomplices. Stands to reason that everything else is foreign too.
I can't believe they are going to make money from a terrible murder and at the same time rub salt in to the wound by saying that one of the murderers is probably innocent. A load of BS!
I feel very sorry for Meredith and her family. I only hope the justice that was gained is upheld.
If anyone, a) understood the Italian justice system, b) knew and understood all the evidence against Amanda and c) knew anything about criminal psychology, they would know that Amanda is as guilty as charged. She may not have struck the fatal blow, but she knows who did.
This tv movie should have never been made until all appeals available were concluded.
I, too, feel sorry for the Kercher family.
As a law student however, you should be aware that mitochondrial DNA does not positively identify a subject within thousands of people. The evidence in this case is as highly suspect as any case in recent memory.
No law enforcement professional has come forward in favor of the prosecution's notion of this crime.
Presently, the Italian Parliament is examining the police behavior regarding the interrogation and arrest of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.
It is very unlikely that either Amanda Knox or Raffaele Sollecito had anything to do with this crime.
The law student is right.
Law student is correct, anyone who takes the time to understand how things work in Italy then considers the evidence against Knox will see she is guilty, if not of murder, of certainly knowing who is guilty (my bet is Sollecito but she is so tied to him that she cannot sell him out at this stage without implicating herself). This appeal will fail and so will the next one. The very best that Knox can hope for is a sentence reduction. This won't be on the scale of Guede as her apology to the court was basically a woe is me tale rather than an actual apology and the beginning of feeling remorse.
Originally posted on Jonathan Miller's column:
They claim to present the facts - but there are two versions of Amanda's behavior starting on the morning they discovered Meredith's body. The writers and producers had to decide if Hayden would behave the way the police and prosecutor claim Amanda acted, or if she would behave the way Amanda and Raffaele say they acted.
Clearly, how Hayden behaves in the movie, starting on that morning, will be the version the writer decided on - Amanda's version, or the prosecutor. So saying they just present the facts up to the arrest is wrong - will it be the prosecutors "facts" or Amanda's facts?
At this point a consensus is forming, supported by experts in a wide variety of areas, that Amanda is innocent. Even Italians are now taking this point of view. So saying the movie will not present a point of view is a lie. In the middle of the appeal, showing this movie is irresponsible.
Warning. This sinsiter poster posts exactly the same lies on any blogs he can find. He pretends to be a man called 'Michael' but is in fact a food blogger from Seattle who has produced propoganda about the Knox case based on her friendship with the murderer's family. Her 'book' is an appalling one, and is not selling well at all, so she is forced to try and advertise it on free blog sites. This sums up the calibre of the rather sneaky, unpleasant chancers trying to cash in on Knox's crimes.
Another question is, did the writers read Candace Dempsey's excellent book Murder in Italy. It presents the most in depth, detailed account of what happened during the period of Nov.2nd to Nov.6th 2007. A second booklet, really a pamphlet, written by Barbie Nadeau, (with the unbiased title: Angel Face -The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox) presents the prosecution's version, verbatim
Candace Dempsey's book was recently chosen one of the best True Crime books of 2010 (Nadeau's wasn't nominated - go figure). So did the writer's consult Dempsey at all? Once again, the question becomes which version will they go with regarding the period between discovering the body and Amanda's arrest.
The lives of two young people are on the line. Another wonderful young person, Meredith, lost her life. The Kerchers will never have their daughter back, and that is tragic. The families of Amanda and Raffaele are luckier. Nothing should happen that would jeopardize their getting a fair trial.
So - the creepy 'Michael' troll is exposed as the lisping Dempsey, and what does she do? Well, she tries to advertise her 'book' for free on the Examiner site. Cheap, unclassy, immoral and very nasty - a really unpleasant woman.
Dear Candace Lisps,
If you make any money from that book you keep flogging, I hope you use it to buy yourself some plastic surgery.
Your big nose and weak chin are not helping to reduce the impact of that massive neck waddle you're sporting.
Did being ugly to look at make you into this lying, amoral mess willing to do anything to sell a book or two?
Do you hate the young victim, Meredith Kercher, because she was everything you never were: beautiful, popular, intelligent, well-educated, and well on her way to a fabulous life 'on the continent' by the time she was only 21?
Go to the mall and buy yourself a new moral compass. You're almost 65 years old FFS!
Dear Candace Lisps,
If you make any money from that book you keep flogging, I hope you use it to buy yourself some plastic surgery.
Your big nose and weak chin are not helping to reduce the impact of that massive neck waddle you're sporting.
Did being ugly to look at make you into this lying, amoral mess willing to do anything to sell a book or two?
Do you hate the young victim, Meredith Kercher, because she was everything you never were: beautiful, popular, intelligent, well-educated, and well on her way to a fabulous life 'on the continent' by the time she was only 21?
Go to the mall and buy yourself a new moral compass. You're almost 65 years old FFS!
You are so obvious, Candace!
Give it a rest.
Let the appeals run and then try to write something that will sell.
Also, I'm wondering if Hayden understands she had admitted Amanda should be acquitted . By stating that the entire cast, writers, directors, and producers of a movie about Amanda cannot figure out what really happened, they are admitting reasonable doubt abounds.
In other words, Hayden correctly states that it is impossible to figure our what happened. We must assume, if they are the least bit responsible, the writers, director, and producers studied the facts in detail. Yet they cannot figure out what happened, and say no one can.
That means there is more than reasonable doubt, and Amanda and Raffaele must be acquitted, because the so-called evidence is entirely inconclusive.
Thank you Hayden and Lifetime, for supporting the acquittal of Amanda and Raffaele.
A C-rate actress and her 'made for TV' colleagues don't have a clue about anything, and yet the despairing Dempsey suggests they 'might' have a gut feeling that Knox 'could be' innocent. The dim Knox groupies haven't got a clue, have they.
What a great idea!
Courts of law are expensive, what with all of those judges, witnesses, juries and rules.
Let's just go to TV movie sets and ask key grips and D list actors what to do between takes!
Yo! Lou the lighting guy thinks she's cute! Let her go!
I feel sorry for Meredith's family having to put up with entltled Americans who think they can spin things how ever they want to get Amanda aquitted.
Lila, I'm one and there are thousands who do not think Amanda Knox is innocent and who abhor the malicious spin put out by the Knoxters.
Please know that there are so many people all over the world (many of them American) who know why Knox is where she is and why she remain where she is.
Amanda knox is a victim in this tragedy.Meredith Kercher was murdered by Rudy Guede acting alone.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are victims of a prosecutor with a fetish for prosecuting innocent defendants
The prosecutor Giuliano Mignini has since been convicted of abuse of power.More and more respected people from criminologists to forensic scientists are added their voice to have this miscarriage of justice overturned
But Knox described exactly how Meredith died - complete with sound effects and a made-up description of Patrick Lumumba carrying out the killing. She stuck with her lies about Patrick, an entirely innocent man, until he came up with a watertight alibi......Doesn't sounds like the behaviour of a 'victim' to me. A unanimous jury agreed, and so did 35 independent judges, and so did the US Embassy in Rome, and so did the US State Dept., etc, etc, etc, etc
I have read both the Dempsey & the Nadeau books on this topic. The Dempsey is a far more reliable & trustworthy book. It was published later after more facts were known.
The Nadeau book is aimed at the intelligence level of the jurors on the first jury (i.e. middle school level). The Nadeau book spends much time conducting an amateurish & bogus psychological assessment of Knox. Large portions of the book are spent trying to make an unconvincing self-serving argument to the reader that Nadeau is in fact a world class journalist. This is done entirely by apron string reporting & name-dropping.
The last portion of the book contains a total unbelievable tale of how Knox thought up, planned, & executed the attack & stabbing of Mez Kercher, as contrived by Nadeau.
The Dempsey book contains a reasoned & moderate discussion of the facts in the case & dose not lead us foolishly to unfounded conclusions.
Read Dempsey.
Believe in her or not, Amanda Knox is still a frightened, very naive young lady who choose to stay in Italy to comfort Meredith's father & stayed in Perugia to help the police rather than seek shelter with relatives in Germany.
Let’s flood her cell with cards, letters & Valentine's on February 14. Please mail by February 1 & packages will NOT be allowed into the prison.
This gesture will cost $.98 in postage.
Miss Amanda Marie Knox
c/o Casa Circondariale
Strada Pievaiola
06100 Capanne (PG)
Italy
Bless you!
Beyond the evil displayed by Knox and her two accomplices, the most disturbing aspect of this case is the emergence of dark trolls like the 'Balzano' poster - a thoroughly sick individual who enjoys tormenting the families of murder victims with obscene lies.
Tony, someone replied to another post somewhere with the suggestion that we flood Amanda's cell with pleas for her to tell the truth, do something good for a change and put the Kercher's out of their misery. I couldn't agree more. Hell, she might even get a sentence reduction.
So lets flood Amanda's cell on Valentines Day to let people know that we are thinking of her....thinking she's a convicted sex killer with no conscience or consideration for anyone but herself.
Oh come on, she's anything but naive.
She looks more like a puppet master to me
Will people be punished for errors in this persecution?
Will the person who destroyed the recordings of Knox being beaten have to face charges?
Will the slum landlord who rented a room to Kerche,r knowing that the front door did not lock have to face a judge?
Will G. Magnini be reprimanded for waking into an active crime scene without changing or covering his shoes?
Will Dr. Stefanoni be charged with incompetence for botching the DNA tests on the mis-sized kitchen knife and ignoring the "Too Low" message from the DNA testing equipment?
Will she be punished for allowing the "critical" knife to be repackaged in an unsecured evidence box, allowing the knife to be contaminated?
Will she be punished for failing to change gloves as she scooped up material in the Kercher household?
Will Magnini be charged for releasing private information from Knox, taken from her in jail before her conviction?
Will the corrupt police force in Perugia be punished for their hostile and violent beating and coercion given to Knox?
Will the police officers who released Guede after deterring his guilt for robbing a lawyer's office and a day care center face discipline?
Will the scientific team be chastised for contaminating the bra strap "lost" for 47 days?
Will Magnini, convicted in an Italian court in Milan of illegal acts while in office, ever serve a day in jail?
Under the corrupt Italian system, the answer is most likely, "No" to each question.
Answer: Boycott Italy
Will the vicious coward Balzo finally tell the world who he is and allow justice to take its course? Or will he continue to spread his poison hidden in his dark basement, slobbering over his Knox pictures?
Tony I don't see how your posts make Amanda innocent or undo the evidence against her.
Cheers
Ros, that's because there is no valid evidence against Amanda - we don't need to make her innocent, she is!
Tony and Billy, we both know that anyone who studies the case will see it is based on nothing. However, most Knox supporters refuse to post in the Examiner because of the level of readership. Candace told me not to bother, and never would herself.
As far as justice systems go, they only try you. You are supposed to be judged by a jury of your peers. The producers, writers, director, and cast of this exploitation movie certainly qualify to be on a jury. They have studied the case in detail. I will assume they were responsible enough to have read TrueJusticeForMeredith, as well as injusticeinperugia. I cannot imagine that Wendy Battles, the writer, and Dornheim, did not read Dempsey's book, and Nadeau's pamphlet. I hope they read the Massei Report.
However, Hayden says that none of them can figure out what happened. They qualify as a jury of peers. That is called reasonable doubt..
Stop plugging your pathetic piece of propoganda you embarrassing old troll Dempsey - you just convince people that the only non-family to be supporting Knox are dim geriatrics.
Tony, Billy and Michael - what a lame trio of weak, immoral characters made up by the disgusting Dempsey as she desperately tries to make money out of all this. Get yourself a life you horrific old bat, and stop trying to ruin other peoples'.
The truth must be found. Only the truth counts, not the personal sympathies. There is a trial going on, it's the second level of judgement. A third and final level will most likely follow. Three levels of judgements, with three different courts deciding on the case: three different sets of people, with different personal histories, different minds, and coming from different places. I don't think it is possible to get much fairer than this. Making parties pro or against is stupid. The courts will decide. Regardless of age, of nationality, of good or bad looking. A family is waiting to know the truth about her innocent child killed: this is the only party that is really correct to support.
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