Roger Ailes was the CEO and chairman of Fox News until he was forced to resign following allegations of sexual harassment in 2016.

In the upcoming and highly anticipated film, Bombshell, Charlize Theron stars as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, two of the women who took on Ailes and eventually got him removed from his position of power at Fox.

Margot Robbie plays a fictional producer, built from a number of real-life women in the industry.

The film, directed by Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Game Change), was unveiled over the weekend in Los Angeles.

Over to The Guardian for more on what the critics are calling a “transformative performance” on the part of Theron.

“It was very important to me that we set out on a road of whatever the greater truth is and stayed on that road and that we never veered and tried to make her sympathetic or to try and persuade people to like her or to think that she was a hero or a good person, that we just told the truth of what her story was,” Theron said after the screening. She also added: “I have no interest in playing heroes.”

The film was written by The Big Short screenwriter Charles Randolph who researched the story through numerous interviews with ex-Fox staffers, many of whom violated their NDAs so as to provide background information.

The film was given the green light before both the election of Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by 25 women, and the start of the #MeToo movement but the makers have noted the timeliness of the story’s retelling.

Check out the trailer:

Bombshell will be in South African cinemas on January 24, 2020.

[source:guardian]