Thread by @amandaknox

Father’s Day is coming up. What should I get Matt Damon?

I joke, but I do have complicated feelings about the fact that Hollywood continues to generate millions of dollars, usually without my consent or input, off the “Inspired by Amanda Knox” genre. I guess that makes me a job creator?

It’s not just this Stillwater film, but most recently, the Flight Attendant, & the Fox show Proven Innocent with Kelsey Grammer that was literally pitched as “What if Amanda Knox became a lawyer to fight for the innocent?”

Of course, I recognize that, legally, the makers of these shows, and of Stillwater, owe me nothing. And Stillwater likely tells a story that diverges from my own in many ways. After all, they changed Washington to Oklahoma and Italy to FRANCE, so…

It might be a great film! I like Matt Damon. And Tom McCarthy is a talented director. And there were definitely moments in prison when I would have given anything for Jason Bourne to fight his way through the guards and whisk me out of there.

Legal concerns aside, I don’t even think they were morally obligated to consult me when creating a story inspired by the most traumatic period of my life. And I’m actually not upset. I’ll probably watch the film. Hell, I’d attend the premiere if Matt Damon invited me.

But it does make me sad that while there is a seemingly endless appetite for interpretations and riffs on my experience, leading to films and shows made by others without my control, I’m still the one routinely accused of profiting off this tragedy.

I’m still the one who has to wake up to news of yet another rendition of my life in the headlines, and get thrown back to a dark place and dark memories, for the day, or the week.

And it makes me wonder if, during the development process, anyone involved ever thought, just for a moment: How will Amanda Knox react? I wonder what she thinks about us basing a story on her family’s terrible ordeal?

I wonder if she has any insight about the emotional dynamics between a father and his daughter who’s been wrongfully imprisoned for murder in a foreign country? Maybe that would be really useful? Should we read her memoir as research?

If so, I would have told them about the only time I’ve ever seen my father cry, the day he visited me in prison shortly after my conviction, and I begged him to save me, knowing he was just as helpless as I was.

I would have told them how my stepdad lived half the year alone in Perugia so someone could always visit me, and how he smuggled gravy and cranberry sauce into the prison on Thanksgiving.

I wonder if the next time someone has the brilliant, original idea of making something “inspired by Amanda Knox,” maybe they’ll stop to wonder about the value of working WITH me to tell the raw, unfiltered, brutally honest truth of my and my family's experience.

As someone committed to thoughtful storytelling (shameless plug for my podcast, LABYRINTHS), I can confidently say that if this film makes worthy art out of a real-life tragedy, that's a good thing.

knoxrobinson.com/labyrinths.html

So I wish Tom McCarthy and Matt Damon success on this film! I hope it’s great, and does well.

From what I can tell from the trailer, it got at least one thing right: My dad IS a bad ass. (My step dad, too).