rupert murdoch is the central figure of a new four-part documentary that charts his rise, the family feud over control and the scandals that shadowed his empire. The film, assembled from archives, documents and interviews with journalists and former staff, focuses on a secret trust plan, courtroom fallout and allegations tied to the clan. Viewers are left watching an empire-shaped family fight over power and legacy.
Rupert Murdoch
The documentary opens by aligning the Murdoch family’s infighting with popular fictional drama, framing the siblings’ rivalries against their father’s outsized influence. The core revelation is a secret strategy—named Project Family Harmony—that sought to alter a family trust and shift voting control toward one son, a move designed to lock the business into a particular political direction and block a more liberal heir. That maneuver spurred a legal fight that culminated in a multi‑billion-dollar settlement for siblings who argued they were denied equal control.
Succession echoes and family fallout
The film mixes sharp character moments—games of Monopoly, long absences in parenting—with darker episodes from the business side: former staff recounting phone-hacking and harassment scandals, and journalists unspooling how tabloid practices unfolded. A former reporter, Paul McMullan, recalls: “One day I turned up with those stolen photographs. ” An on‑the‑record anecdote captures an editor, Rebekah Brooks, storming an office and shouting, “This is shit. This is shit!” The documentary also relays a startling claim about a fatal car incident involving the family’s second wife, flagged as sensational yet lacking public trace in the film’s archival sweep.
Voices, direction and the narrative frame
Director Liz Garbus shapes the story with archival evidence and interviews with writers and veterans who followed the empire for decades. The film includes commentary that labels the patriarch’s political interventions as consequential for wider democratic life; actor Hugh Grant is heard calling him “a proper danger to liberal democracies. ” Journalists who appear help map the trust battle and the internal memo chain that set sibling confrontation in motion—one representative, Mark Devereux, is shown writing a memo that catalysed the family dispute and the subsequent settlement. The result is not a cheerleading portrait but a detailed, often grim account of how family, business and politics became entangled.
Immediate reactions from participants
Liz Garbus, director, frames the project as a long-form excavation of power and family. Hugh Grant, actor, offers a blunt moral take on the patriarch’s public impact. Paul McMullan, former reporter, provides eyewitness color on newsroom practices and pursuit tactics. Mark Devereux, representative for one family member, is shown as a pivotal actor whose memo reshaped the siblings’ legal fight.
What comes next
After the documentary’s release the story moves from unresolved family bargaining to legal and reputational reckonings; viewers should expect more scrutiny of the trust structures and the settlement’s fallout. The film frames the succession drama as less a battle over business than a struggle over who will carry forward a political and media legacy—while those left watching will continue asking what it means for institutions when family and empire collide around rupert murdoch.
