Banished UK royal Prince Andrew’s disastrous, life-changing TV interview about his close friendship with late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is being turned into a movie.
Screenwriter Peter Moffat confirmed to Deadline that work has started on “Scoops,” a movie about the November 2019 BBC interview that led to the 62-year-old prince being banished from royal duties by his mom, Queen Elizabeth II.
The flick is a big-screen adaptation of a book of the same name — published Thursday — that details behind-the-scenes wrangling that led to Andrew’s shocking decision to agree to the sit-down.
The book by producer Sam McAlister, who clinched the blockbuster interview, “makes for very thrilling drama,” Moffat told the outlet.
The indie production has yet to assign a director, and while the team has “thoughts” on actors to play the scandal-scarred royal, so far “no one is attached,” said Hilary Salmon of the production company behind it, The Lighthouse Film & Television.
The pair refused to comment on rumors that Hugh Grant had been approached — ones that the “Notting Hill” star quickly shot down.
“Never heard of it,” Grant, 61, tweeted Thursday, insisting he’s “not” involved.
Still, any time the team has approached casting agents about the flick, “The reaction is always the same, ‘Oh, wow,’” Salmon said.
In the bombshell interview, Andrew justified his ongoing friendship with Epstein even after the latter was convicted of sex offenses against young girls, and spoke warmly of his longtime friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who has since been convicted of trafficking girls for Epstein.
He also denied knowing his own sex accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre — even suggesting that a photo of them together was a hoax.
In a humiliating reversal, Andrew promised to never again publicly accuse Giuffre of lying about being “an established victim of abuse” as he settled with her out of court for an estimated $12 million.
“Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others,” according to his groveling statement in February.
The movie will recreate the final interview, but will focus more on “how the BBC’s Newsnight team got the scoop” — especially focusing on “why did [Andrew] agree to do it,” Moffat told Deadline.
“How was it that he decided it was a good idea to do a great big long interview with Emily Maitlis on the BBC?” the screenwriter asked incredulously.
It will also highlight how Andrew appeared to have come undone due to his sense of “entitlement” by which he “always feels in control.”
“He thought it had gone extremely well,” Salmon said of the sit-down that was widely ridiculed as being a “car crash” for the duke.
“Newsnight couldn’t have been fairer to him,” Moffat insisted, saying Andrew wasted “all the opportunities that [interviewer Emily Maitlis] gave him to say the right things to justify his friendship with Epstein, to say how sorry he was.”
Despite settling with Giuffre, Andrew — whose mom later also stripped him of his royal titles — has vehemently denied her claims. His TV chat came three months after Epstein killed himself in his Manhattan lockup in August 2019 while awaiting further serious sex charges.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the movie.
