The filming of Amanda Knox’s new Hulu series in Perugia, Italy— the site of her roommate Meredith Kercher’s murder in 2007— is sparking a wave of backlash from locals.
Residents of the university town put up banners reading “Rispetto per Meredith” (“Respect for Meredith”) when the cast and crew of the show arrived last week to film the eight-part limited series, which is produced by Knox and follows her wrongful conviction, Variety reported.
The uproar from residents caused the mayor of Perugia, Vittoria Ferdinandi, to issue an apology, published in Italian newspapers.
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“We could have not authorized the filming of five scenes in Perugia,” Ferdinandi wrote 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.”
Kercher, a British exchange student, was sexually assaulted and murdered on Nov. 2, 2007. Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted for Kercher’s murder and served four years in prison before being exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015.
Known burglar Rudy Guede was later found guilty of the murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was released in 2021. The case sparked massive international media attention.
Read it at Variety
