{"id":800881,"date":"2026-10-13T04:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800881\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T04:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:22:14","slug":"how-ink-production-designers-recreated-the-sun-newsroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800881\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘Ink’ Production Designers Recreated The Sun Newsroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDanny Boyle<\/a>\u2019s latest film \u201cInk<\/a>\u201d traces the rise of Rupert Murdoch on London\u2019s Fleet Street and the takeover of The Sun newspaper.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film premieres at the London Film Festival<\/a> and will open in select theaters Dec. 11 before landing on Netflix on Jan. 8 in the U.S. and Latin America.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInk\u201d is based on the Tony-nominated play of the same name by James Graham, who adapted his own work for the screen. Guy Pearce plays a brash, 30-something Rupert Murdoch, with Jack O\u2019Connell as editor Larry Lamb, the working-class newspaper journalist who helped him remake The Sun into a populist juggernaut.<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in 1969 London, Boyle enlisted his go-to production designers, Gareth Pugh and Carson McColl, to bring his vision to life. Boyle\u2019s brief was simple. \u201cHe said he wanted to reset the expectations of a period film,\u201d McColl explains. \u201cWe took that to mean that he wanted to recreate 1969, but in a way that felt immediate and grabby.\u201d They looked back at how The Sun was one of the original places to find clickbait-style headlines. <\/p>\n

\n\tFleet Street<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Dickenson<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Fleet Street of today looks vastly different from the Fleet Street of 1969. \u201cA lot of Fleet Street doesn\u2019t exist anymore,\u201d Pugh says. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Sun\u2019s 1969 headquarters was originally located on Bouverie Street, with the print press set in the basement of the offices. In its place now stand modern buildings. \u201cWe ran into challenges when trying to recreate the newsroom,\u201d Pugh says. <\/p>\n

\n\tThey ultimately found a space in Bromley, U.K., which they could transform for filming. \u201cIt had been vacated by the local council, and the mix of different architectural styles made it ideal for housing the various set-pieces, particularly the newsroom,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Newsroom<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Dickenson<\/p>\n

\n\tThe newsroom was a huge undertaking for Pugh, and McColl describes it as the \u201cnerve center\u201d of the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoyle referred to the space as a spaceship. Pugh notes, \u201cIt\u2019s where we spent most of our time in the script.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMcColl adds, \u201cFor the space to feel real, the layout was key. In a newsroom, especially of that era, there was a daily system of way-finding \u2014 from the morning until the copy deadline at night \u2014 that would escalate into a frenzy of activity and human traffic.\u201d He explains they worked with consultants who had experience on Fleet Street in 1969 to map out the newsroom and choreograph its flow with the cast. \u201cIt was amazing to see how it resembled an ecosystem,\u201d McColl says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe set had to balance breadth and scale despite the film\u2019s low budget, which forced the team to be both creative and resourceful. \u201cDanny gives us a lot of latitude when we\u2019re designing sets,\u201d McColl says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair had recently given up smoking, but they wanted to add an extra layer of authenticity. McColl says, \u201cWe smoked like two packets of cigarettes, so that it smelled like cigarette smoke.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to that, they found old rotary phones, typewriters and other set-pieces that immersed the cast and the film in that era.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Dickenson<\/p>\n

\n\tLinotype Machines<\/p>\n

\n\tOne challenge was finding the Linotype machines which The Sun relied on for its typesetting. McColl says, \u201cThey\u2019re priceless. There are very, very few left in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s set decorator Ben Barrington Groves came to the rescue. McColl says, \u201cHe found someone who had an obsession with hot metal printing and he convinced them to come on this journey with us.\u201d The team ultimately secured three fully functional Linotype machines.<\/p>\n

\n\tLarry\u2019s Office<\/p>\n

\n\tLarry Lamb\u2019s office was designed to reflect the arc of his story. McColl explains, \u201cThe newsroom was supposed to look tired \u2014 functional, but reflective of a struggling newspaper. Amid the chaos, Larry needed his own space and as the movie progresses, he should feel increasingly isolated. We wanted the audience to see him through the gridded glass windows, alone in the final scenes where he\u2019s on the phone with Hugh Cudlip, the newsroom deserted. It was a visual way of showing that while he got everything he wanted, he\u2019s found himself alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe team also worked closely with set decorator, Alice Davies, whose contributions proved invaluable. \u201cWhen I walked into Larry\u2019s office one day, her rough layout was nearly perfect,\u201d McColl recalls. \u201cIt was a testament to how closely attuned we were to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo much was their eye and attention for detail that they found a way to make Larry\u2019s phone work. \u201cYou could pick it up and you\u2019d get the sales numbers,\u201d McColl says.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCostume designer Carson McColl and production designer Gareth Pugh on the set of \u201cInk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Dickenson<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Tube<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one sequence, Rupert Murdoch is riding the tube. As with everything else, London Underground had since been modernized. So, the train sequence presented its own challenges. \u201cThere\u2019s only one train of the right era, located near Watford,\u201d Pugh explains. \u201cIt\u2019s part of a museum, so the idea of bringing a film crew in initially made the curators nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it couldn\u2019t be used how they wanted, they got creative. Pugh says, \u201cWe used high-powered wind machines and flying newspapers to create the frenetic environment, all while being careful with the artifacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe scene was brought to life by lighting designer Steve Mackie, who used fast-moving bar lights. \u201cHe was able to rush light down the entire length of the train and make it look like it was going at a million miles an hour,\u201d Pugh says.<\/p>\n

\n\tMcColl adds, \u201cThere was something very punk and DIY. During prep, we experimented with different setups \u2014 running cameras down corridors and building fake tube windows to achieve the right look. Danny brought a 360-degree camera into \u2018Ink,\u2019 and used it for certain sequences, including the pivotal kidnapping of Muriel Mackay. It felt brave and risky, but it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tINK. (L to R) Jonathan Hyde as Sir Alick McKay and Jack OConnell as Lamb in INK. Cr. Courtesy of Studiocanal \u00a9 2026.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Studiocanal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danny Boyle\u2019s latest film \u201cInk\u201d traces the rise of Rupert Murdoch on London\u2019s Fleet Street and the takeover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[17182,96,24008,82460,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-800881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-danny-boyle","tag-entertainment","tag-ink","tag-london-film-festival","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}