In this Wednesday Dec. 5, 2018 photo, US actor Sean Penn, left, is filmed near the Saudi Arabia's consulate building in Istanbul. Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told The Associated Press Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, that Penn is in Turkey working on a documentary about the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the consulate on Oct. 2, 2018. (IHA via AP)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) --
A Turkish official says Sean Penn is in Turkey working on a documentary about the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkey's president, tells The Associated Press on Thursday that the two-time Oscar winner interviewed him in Ankara as part of his "preliminary preparations" for the documentary before leaving for Istanbul where he was due to meet with Khashoggi's Turkish fiancee.
The Washington Post columnist who was critical of the Saudi crown prince was killed by Saudi agents on Oct. 2 after arriving to handle routine paperwork. Aktay, who was a friend of Khashoggi's, was the first to alert authorities that the journalist had disappeared inside the consulate.
Turkish media showed Penn filming in front of the consulate building Wednesday.
Ashley Walters, left, and Rosalind Eleazar pose for photographers at a photo call for the television series "Missing You," Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
It's Netflix's resolution every new year to give viewers a headscratcher in January.
Since 2020, the streamer has released a U.K. miniseries based on thriller book by Harlan Coben over the holidays. It seems to have paid off: "Fool Me Once," starring Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar and Joanna Lumley, launched this past January and became what Netflix says was one of their most watched shows of the year, amassing 108 million views.
2025's seasonal suspense series is "Missing You," based on Coben's 2014 New York Times bestseller. It stars Rosalind Eleazar ("Slow Horses") as Detective Inspector Kat Donovan, a police officer who specializes in finding missing people — apart from the fiance that vanished 11 years earlier.
"They know Jan. 1 is the sweet spot for them," says actor Richard Armitage, who has appeared in each winter Coben adaptation, which relocates the stories from the books' America to the north of England. "People have ownership over the show now, so like, 'I want my Harlan Coben show on New Year's Day. Give me my Harlan Coben fix.'"
"It's perfect timing for the release, to be honest," says co-star Ashley Walters. "Most people are going to be hung over or, you know, just not have anything to do with the day."
The show opens with the shock of Donovan's ex-fiance (Walters) popping up on a dating app, over a decade after she came home one day to find him gone.
"I've ghosted people before," laughs Armitage. "Just people you don't want to talk to anymore. Not digitally though."
Another star, Jessica Plummer, isn't a fan of those who disappear without saying goodbye, though.
"I'd just feel too guilty," she admits, calling it "cowardly and lazy — sorry Richard!"
