Amanda Knox sings the Beatles, attracts Hollywood's eye, preps for appeal

The real-life soap opera that has swirled around American college student Amanda Knox since she was convicted of murdering her British roommate is set to become even more of a media circus, with two movies to be made about the controversial case.

Details of the projects emerged as Ms. Knox and her lawyers prepare to appeal the 26-year sentence, which was handed down last December in Perugia, Umbria, where the 2007 murder took place.

The appeal will start Nov. 24 in Perugia, with the former University of Washington student's courtroom appearance likely to draw dozens of American, British, and Italian journalists and TV crews back to the ancient walled city.

The case, in which Knox, her then Italian boyfriend, and a local drifter were found guilty of stabbing to death a 21-year-old British woman, Meredith Kercher, in what prosecutors called a violent sex game, continues to attract huge interest in Italy.

The case appeared to split public opinion here, with half the country believing that Knox was a promiscuous, cold-hearted killer and the other half seeing her as an innocent abroad who was convicted despite no obvious motive.

But ongoing fascination in the story comes down to her fresh-faced good looks and the fact that, even after the 11-month trial, the highly contested circumstances of the crime make it a genuine murder mystery.

“You have all the elements of the reality TV culture in which we live: sex, drugs, violence, and lies," says Barbie Latza Nadeau, author of "Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox," and an Italy-based correspondent for Newsweek and the Daily Beast.

“Both the victim and the suspects are attractive, intelligent people, but there’s also nothing special about them. I think American parents see their own daughters in Amanda Knox, while British parents see their daughters in Ms. Kercher," says Ms. Latza Nadeau.

“Plus, even after all this time and after so much evidence has come out, it is still a mystery. No one really knows what happened that night,” she says.

Prison concert

The smallest details of Knox’s life behind bars are reported on an almost weekly basis by the Italian media – most recently the fact that she took part in a prison concert and sang along to songs by the Beatles, reportedly her favorite band.

Several books have been written about the murder, the most recent by an ex-prisoner who befriended Knox in jail.

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