'Shades Of Black' Writer: Fallen Media Mogul Conrad Gets Bad Rap

By: E&P Staff Andrew Wreggitt, the writer of the upcoming Canadian TV movie about Conrad Black, says the deposed newspaper mogul is being treated unfairly by the press.

"I personally think he has been unfairly treated in the media," Wreggitt said in an interview published in the Calgary Sun Tuesday. "I think people have forgotten -- or have chosen to forget -- the allegations against him are not yet proven."

Wreggitt wrote the movie "Shades of Black," which airs Monday, Dec. 4, on CTV. The movie stars Albert Schultz as Black; Lara Flynn Boyle as his wife, the columnist Barbara Amiel Black; and Jason Priestley of "Beverly Hills 90210" fame as reporter Jeff Sargeant, a fictionalized character. In the movie, a supposed interview of Black by Sargeant frames the narrative of his rise and fall as a newspaper mogul overseeing dozens of papers published in the United States, Canada, the U.K. and Israel.

The film takes place before Black's indictment by U.S. authorities on multiple racketeering, mail fraud, money-laundering and tax charges for the alleged looting of more than $80 million from Hollinger International Inc., the Chicago-based newspaper publishing company now known as Sun-Times Media Group. Black and other key executives have pleaded not guilty to the charges and face a trial beginning next March in Chicago. Black's former right-hand man, former Chicago Sun-Times Publisher F. David Radler has pleaded guilty to a single charge of fraud in the alleged looting in exchange for a reduced sentence and a promise to testify against Black.

In the Calgary Sun interview with writer Tara Merrin, Wreggitt said he came to the project with no preconceived notions of Black's guilt or innocence.

"I didn't want to be the 110th person to throw a harpoon into the whale. What would be the point of that?" he said.

"There is kind of this collective wisdom that we should hate him because he's arrogant and we should hate that he's so rich," Wreggitt added. "That's annoying, perhaps, but that's not illegal."

The film is based on the book of the same name by Richard Siklos, and starts, according to an announcement by CTV Media Group, with Black, removed as CEO of Hollinger, holed up in his Toronto mansion.

"As Conrad Black, Schultz delivers a cunning character portrait of a man who -- betrayed by friends and attacked by business partners -- steadfastly maintains his innocence in the face of enormous legal challenges and social exile," the company said. "As Black's glamorous second wife, Barbara Amiel, Lara Flynn Boyle portrays a woman of style and substance who unfailingly stands beside her embattled husband as he confronts the biggest challenge in his life."