Hulu’s Amanda Knox series is causing an uproar in the Italian city of Perugia, where the show – executive produced by Knox herself – has been filming 17 years after the murder of Meredith Kercher.
The arrival of the show’s cast and crew last week in the university town, where Knox’s British roommate was found dead in their room on Nov. 2, 2007, has prompted angry locals to put up banners that read “Rispetto per Meredith” (“Respect for Meredith”). The outcry has led the city’s mayor, Vittoria Ferdinandi, to issue a letter of apology to Perugia citizens, which was published in Italian newspapers.
“We could have not authorized the filming of five scenes in Perugia,” the Perugia mayor said in the letter, “but they would have been filmed in any other town in our region.”
She continued: “We believed that allowing [the scenes] to be filmed here would provide us an element of greater guarantee and control because – as we requested – we are able to view and authorize every scene.”
Hulu did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
The eight-episode limited series – which the letter says is titled “Blue Moon” – is “based on the true story of how Knox was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher,” per the official synopsis.
Knox and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were initially convicted of Kercher’s murder in the headline-grabbing case, but were ultimately acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015. Rudy Guede was eventually found guilty of the murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was released in November 2021.
However, doubts about Knox’s role in the murder linger in Italy and with Kercher’s family.
As previously announced, Hulu’s Amanda Knox series stars Grace Van Patten (“Tell Me Lies”) in the lead role while Italy’s Giuseppe De Domenico (“ZeroZeroZero,” “Bang Bang Baby”) plays Sollecito.
K.J. Steinberg serves as creator of the series. Executive producers include Steinberg; Knox and her husband Chris Robinson for Knox Robinson Productions; Warren Littlefield, Lisa Harrison, Kathy Ciric, Ann Johnson and Graham Littlefield for the Littlefield Company; and Monica Lewinsky via her Alt Ending Productions banner. 20th Television is the studio.