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Amanda Knox has claimed new film Stillwater sensationalises her life and rips off her story “without her consent” and “at the expense of her reputation”.

Stillwater stars Matt Damon as a father who flies to France to help his estranged daughter, Allison, played by Abigail Breslin.

She has been convicted and imprisoned for murdering her girlfriend in Marseille, in a case that has generated lurid headlines.

Knox is never named on screen, but in interviews the filmmakers have noted her sensational case was an initial jumping off point for the script.

Matt Damon stars as Bill in Stillwater. Pic: Focus Features
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Matt Damon stars as Bill – a father who flies to Europe to help his daughter who is accused of murder. Pic: Focus Features
The film is inspired by the murder of Meredith Kercher. Pic: Focus Features
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Stillwater is partly influenced by the murder of Meredith Kercher. Pic: Focus Features

In tweets and an essay on the site Medium, Knox called out various publications and director Tom McCarthy for using her name to promote the movie.

She wrote that his “fictionalised version of me is just the tabloid conspiracy guiltier version of me”.

She added: “Does my name belong to me? Does my face? What about my life? My story? Why is my name used to refer to events I had no hand in?

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“I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face, and story without my consent.”

Knox was the subject of worldwide headlines after the 2007 murder in Perugia, Italy, of British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were placed under suspicion. Both were initially convicted, but after a series of different decisions Italy’s highest court threw out the convictions in 2015.

Matt Damon
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Interviews and reviews of the film mention Knox as an inspiration for the story

Rudy Guede was eventually convicted for the murder and sentenced to a 16-year prison sentence in 2008.

“By fictionalising away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person,” Knox wrote.

At the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month, where Stillwater was screened, McCarthy said Knox’s case served as an “initial inspiration point but not much beyond that. I just had a daughter then and I thought how it would be like”.

Meredith Kercher
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British student Meredith Kercher was killed in Perugia, Italy in 2007

In a later interview with The Associated Press to promote Stillwater, McCarthy said he “didn’t want to kind of copy or mimic” Knox’s legal ordeal.

“It’s loosely inspired by that case, so I didn’t want to try and do a recreation of that. I want Allison to kind of be her own stand-alone character, but it was definitely great to have that for a reference,” he said.

Many reviews and feature stories about Stillwater have mentioned Knox as an inspiration for the plot. The film opens Friday.

The studio releasing the film, Focus Features, didn’t immediately respond to emails from the Associated Press on Friday.

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How much of the White House is Trump demolishing?

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How much of the White House is Trump demolishing?

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈 

Donald Trump begins bulldozing much of the White House as his plans to build a mega ballroom begin – without planning permission, nor true clarity as to how it’s all being funded.

There are aesthetic questions, historical questions and ethical questions. We dig into what they are.

And – who is the young Democratic socialist about to become New York City’s first Muslim mayor? We tell you everything you need to know about Zohran Mamdani.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel – and watch David Blevins’ digital video on the White House ballroom here.

Email us on trump100@sky.uk with your comments and questions.

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Furious Trump cancels ‘all trade negotiations’ with Canada after TV advert

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Furious Trump cancels 'all trade negotiations' with Canada after TV advert

Analysis: Escalation will test Trump and Carney’s relationship

Trump turning once again on America’s closest ally Canada just proves how flippant his trade decisions are.

The smooth-talking confidence of Prime Minister Mark Carney persuaded Canadians to vote for him in this year’s election.

He certainly ran on a pitch to stand up to Trump, but his recent dealings with the US president have largely been diplomatic and cordial.

Carney was last in the Oval Office just over two weeks ago, and the pair laughed off Trump’s obsession with Canada becoming the “51st state”.

But now it’s a single advert from the government of Ontario that has triggered Trump to pause all trade talks between the two, calling its anti-tariff stance “egregious” on his social media platform Truth Social.

The advert uses Ronald Reagan’s voice to attack tariff policy – arguing trade barriers “hurt every American worker and consumer… markets shrink, and collapse, businesses and industries shut down and millions of people lose their jobs”.

But now, the Ronald Reagan Foundation has said the ad “misrepresents” his words – and they did not give their permission to use it.

Mere hours before Trump’s post, Carney was prodding Trump jokingly to bet on the outcome of the baseball World Series.

Given this latest escalation by the President tonight, their next interaction will be far from a laughing matter.

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Putin criticises Trump’s sanctions on oil firms – as Russian jets ‘briefly enter NATO airspace’

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Putin criticises Trump's sanctions on oil firms - as Russian jets 'briefly enter NATO airspace'

Vladimir Putin has described Donald Trump’s sanctions against two major oil firms as an “unfriendly act”.

However, the Russian president has insisted the tightened restrictions won’t affect the nation’s economy, a claim widely contradicted by most analysts.

In a major policy shift, Mr Trump imposed sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil – Russia’s biggest oil companies – on Wednesday.

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Will US sanctions on Russian oil hurt the Kremlin?

The White House said this was because of “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.

Putin has now warned the move could disrupt the global oil markets, and lead to higher prices for consumers worldwide.

A meeting between the two leaders had been proposed in Budapest, but Mr Trump said he had decided to cancel the talks because “it didn’t feel right to me”.

Speaking from the Oval Office, he had told reporters: “I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”

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Giving a speech in Moscow yesterday, Putin said “dialogue is always better than war” – but warned that Russia will never bow to pressure from abroad.

Earlier, his long-term ally Dmitry Medvedev had described Mr Trump as a “talkative peacemaker” who had now “fully embarked on the warpath against Russia”.

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Why did Trump sanction Russian oil?

Oil prices have witnessed a sizeable jump since the sanctions were announced, with Brent crude rising by 5% – the biggest daily percentage gains since the middle of June.

In other developments, Lithuania has claimed that two Russian military aircraft briefly entered its airspace yesterday.

A Su-30 fighter and Il-78 refuelling tanker were in the NATO member’s territory for 18 seconds, and Spanish jets were scrambled in response to the incident.

Russia’s defence ministry denied this – and said its planes did not violate the borders of any other country during a “training flight” in the Kaliningrad region.

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Sanctions could have chilling effect on market

How could new sanctions impact the UK?

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Zelenskyy tells Sky News ‘ceasefire is still possible’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended a European Council summit in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine – and said the meeting had delivered “good results”.

He said Ukraine had secured political support for frozen Russian assets and “their maximum use” to defend against Russian aggression, adding the EU would “work out all the necessary details”.

Mr Zelenskyy thanked the bloc for approving its 19th sanctions package against Russia earlier today, and work was already beginning on a 20th.

European leaders are going to arrive in London later today for a “critical” meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” – with the goal of discussing “how they can pile pressure on Putin as he continues to kill innocent civilians with indiscriminate attacks across Ukraine”.

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How will the Russian oil sanctions affect petrol costs?

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “The only person involved in this conflict who does not want to stop the war is President Putin, and his depraved strikes on young children in a nursery this week make that crystal clear.

“Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace.

“From the battlefield to the global markets, as Putin continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine we must ratchet up the pressure on Russia and build on President Trump’s decisive action.”

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