Oliver Upton/FXRidley Scott’s recent film All the Money in the World may have renewed public interest in the Getty family’s legacy, but FX’s 10-episode series Trust adds complexity to the characters and magnitude to the mystery that can’t be achieved in a two-hour film.
In Trust, Donald Sutherland stars as unimaginably wealthy oil baron J. Paul Getty Sr., and Harris Dickinson plays his teenage grandson, J. Paul “Little Paul” Getty III, who was kidnapped and held for ransom in Rome in 1973. Getty Sr. refused to pay the ransom, leaving the negotiations to the boy’s desperate mother (Hilary Swank) and the investigation to an ex-CIA agent (Brendan Fraser).
Trust executive producers Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy and Christian Colson sourced ideas and details from Charles Fox’s 2013 book Uncommon Youth: The Gilded Life and Tragic Times of J. Paul Getty III. “It became clear, reading in between the lines — and we did a lot of research ourselves — that [Little Paul] actually kidnapped himself,” Beaufoy says. “It was a hoax gone wrong.”
Trust premieres on FX March 25 at 10pm ET/PT and airs Sundays.
