Amanda Knox Complains Matt Damon Film 'Stillwater' Rips Off Her Life

Amanda Knox, who became the center of global attention in 2007 after being wrongfully convicted for murder while she was an exchange student in Italy, is speaking out against the new film “Stillwater” starring Matt Damon as ripping off her life while casting doubts over her innocence.

What Happened: Knox was charged with killing a fellow exchange student in the apartment they shared in Perugia, Italy, and spent nearly four years in prison. The real killer was eventually apprehended and Knox was acquitted in 2015.

Knox told her story in the 2016 Netflix NFLX documentary “Amanda Knox,” but was not consulted on “Stillwater” from Comcast Corporation’s CMCSA Focus Features. The film stars Damon as an Oklahoma oilrig worker whose daughter, an exchange student in France, is imprisoned for on charges of murdering a friend.

Writing on her Medium blog, Knox noted a Vanity Fair article that described “Stillwater” as being sourced “by the ‘Amanda Knox saga,’” for which she took umbrage.

“What does that refer to?” she wrote. “Does it refer to anything I did?

“No. It refers to the events that resulted from the murder of Meredith Kercher by a burglar named Rudy Guede. It refers to the shoddy police work, prosecutorial tunnel vision, and refusal to admit their mistakes that led the Italian authorities to wrongfully convict me, twice.”

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What Else Happened: Knox, who works as a writer and an advocate for individuals wrongly accused of crimes, added that Stillwater “is by no means the first thing to rip off my story without my consent at the expense of my reputation” and sought the opportunity to speak with Damon and the film’s director, Todd McCarthy for “fictionalizing away my innocence” in a manner that will “have viewers wondering, ‘Maybe the real-life Amanda was involved somehow.’”

Damon hasn't offered any public comment on Knox’s complaints. McCarthy was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight during its New York City premiere earlier in the month and insisted Knox wasn't being slandered.

“This is not the Amanda Knox story – just inspired,” he said, adding that moviegoers should “just go buy a ticket and get lost. Sit in a quiet theater and enjoy it.”

Photo: Amanda Knox from the 2016 documentary on her life. Photo courtesy of Netflix.

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