Keith Allen’s film will never see the light of day, despite being years in the making

Jul 9, 2012 12:43 GMT  ·  By
“Unlawful Killing,” a controversial documentary on Princess Diana's death, has been shelved permanently
   “Unlawful Killing,” a controversial documentary on Princess Diana's death, has been shelved permanently

This August, conspiracy theorists were supposed to finally get the chance to see in theaters a movie they'd been expecting for years. Directed by Keith Allen, the documentary “Unlawful Killing,” tackled the death of Princess Diana and offered answers – but it has now been shelved permanently.

Last year, we informed you that “Unlawful Killing” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it eventually found enough distributors for an international release.

Chances are it might have even made its way to the US – though not the UK.

Funded by Mohammed Al-Fayed, father of Dodi Al-Fayed, who was with Diana in the car in Paris in 1997, the film placed the blame for the deaths of both on the Royal Family.

The Hollywood Reporter says that the claims it made were so dangerous that the film failed to get insurances to vouch for it, and thus died prematurely.

“Unlawful Killing, financed by Al-Fayed's billionaire father, Mohamed, has been shelved permanently after the producers couldn't secure the necessary insurance needed to indemnify them and distributors from any lawsuits involving the film's content,” THR says.

“The documentary – alleging a cover-up following the 1997 deaths of Diana and Al-Fayed – was set to be released in the US and a number of foreign markets Aug. 31, the 15th anniversary of the Paris car crash accident that killed the pair and their driver. Those territories included Spain, Italy, Holland, Brazil, India and Russia,” adds the same media outlet.

A trailer for the documentary is below, embedded at the end of this article.

“The US distributor interested in releasing the film required global insurance coverage [...]. However, no insurer would cover the U.K. or France, even though Unlawful Killing isn't being released in those countries,” THR says.

“It became undoable. We are all disappointed. We worked on Unlawful Killing for four years. We've written back to all of the distributors and are returning their minimum guarantees. We're doing the decent thing,” Conor Nolan, president of London-based production house Allied Stars, says for the same media outlet.