Jan 2019. The James Bulger Film

January 2019. A harrowing film recreating the events surrounding the notorious murder of twoyearold James Bulger has been nominated for an Oscar despite protests from the boy s family. In the Irishmade Detainment, two child actors portray the toddler s killers before and after the killing. James was a month short of his third birthday when he was abducted by two 10yearold boys at the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993. His mother Denise was in a butcher s shop when James was taken from the doorway by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. They led him out and to a railway line, where they killed him. The fact such a young boy had been deliberately murdered by other children shocked the nation, and the world. Venables and Thompson were convicted of murder and have since been given new identities. The films director Vincent Lambe has said some key scenes that took place outside the police interview room were dramatised, but that it was as close as we could possibly have made it