Actress Hayden Panettiere will portray Arbor Heights-raised Amanda Knox in a Lifetime Channel movie to air Feb. 21.
According to the popular website, Internet Movie Data Base, or IMDB, the soon-to-be-released Lifetime Channel film based on West Seattle-raised Amanda Knox and her ordeal in Perugia, Italy will be called Via Della Rosa.
Update: Other media are calling the film Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy.
We now believe the proper title will be the latter. The film, regardless of its title, is reported to air Feb. 21.
Two working titles widely reported until recently were Tangled and The Amanda Knox Story.
Via Della Rosa may be a play on words, as "Via Dolorosa" is Latin for "The way of grief or suffering." It is also the path in the Old City of Jerusalem where Jesus is said to have carried his cross, marked by 14 stations, to the crucifixion.
As we reported here on controversy surrounding the making of the film, former Heroes star Hayden Panettiere portrays Knox:
http://www.westseattleherald.com/2010/10/07/features/amanda-knox-movies…
Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, will be portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden. Harden won the Academy Award in 2001 for Best Actress for her role in Pollock as Lee Krasner, the artist's wife, and was nominated in 2004 for Best Supporting Actress in Mystic River.
Heather Cave, who is listed as age 17, portrays Amanda's sister, Deanna. Deanna is 15 months younger than Amanda, who is 23.
Absent from the list of cast members is Meredith Kercher, Knox's roommate in Perugia who was murdered. A Herald reader pointed out that British papers began reporting a month ago that a little-known actress and Cambridge graduate, Amanda Fernando Stevens, is set to portray Ms. Kercher. Again, her name does not (yet) appear on the IMDB link.
While some false rumors have spread in the media both in America and Europe about behind-the-scenes maneuverings of this film, Knox's parents, step-parents, and the Lifetime Channel all acknowledge that neither Amanda nor anyone else in her family has been consulted on the script.
Here is the IMBD link to the film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1783413/
Here is a link describing the title "Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy":
http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/display/28228#top