Teaser for Michael Winterbottom's Amanda Knox Drama 'The Face of an Angel'

Michael Winterbottom has been saying for awhile that his film The Face of an Angel isn't directly based on the Amanda Knox murder trial, but judging by this first look footage it will certainly use it to draw attention. Inspired by Barbie Latza Nadeau's book Angel Face: Sex, Murder and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox, the film stars Kate Beckinsale, Daniel Bruhl, and Cara Delavingne in a renamed account of the media circus that accompanied the trial.

The project is due to be sold on the European Film Market, and it's bound to be one of the hottest properties there with all of the buzz surrounding Knox's recent conviction by an Italian court. The Seattle-born Knox had been accused of murdering her roommate in Italy, and was held in prison four years before the original conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered. Last month she was convicted of murder again, with Knox absent from the proceedings, and an appeal filed that should send the case to Italy's Supreme Court.

Winterbottom's film will deal with much more than that, centering on a struggling filmmaker, who has recently been separated from his family, who has been assigned to write a movie based on the case. While researching it with an author, he falls in love with a girl who helps him put his priorities in order. Does he keep trying to solve the case? Or return to his family?

No release date yet, but expect The Face of an Angel to be a big seller in the coming weeks, although to me it looks like something that should be airing on Oxygen.