Amanda Knox has been urged to ‘shut up’ by locals in Perugia as filming begins there for a new drama about Meredith Kercher’s murder which she is co-producing.

Kercher was stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with Knox while she was studying in Perugia in 2007 on exchange from the University of Leeds.

Knox was found guilty of fatally stabbing Kercher and jailed but was acquitted of the murder for the second time in 2015, after she had already served four years of her sentence.

Following a 2011 film for US television, her 2013 memoir, Waiting to be Heard, and a 2016 Netflix documentary, Knox is now co-producing an eight-part series about her path to freedom.

When the crews for Disney-owned Hulu arrived in Perugia, they were met with a banner emblazoned with ‘Rispetto per Meredith’ (respect for Meredith).

The banner was created by resident Walter Cardinali, who said he was furious that Kercher was being forgotten. ‘Perugia was unable to defend Meredith, but we can defend her memory,’ he told the Times.

‘I don’t like them filming here. It’s time she shut up,’ Angelo Messino, 32, added.

Messino is the new manager of The Zoo bar, formerly Le Chic, where Knox worked while living in Perugia. The bar is close to reopening after being closed since the murder.

The city of Perugia nestled in the scenic region of Umbria has long attempted to move on from the now infamous murder case.

Unsurprisingly, residents are now angry that their city is once again associated with the crime as film crews have taken over the town, which has even held off on putting up their Christmas lights to not interfere with filming.

Local councillor Margherita Scoccia has criticised the Perugian authorities for allowing filming in the town in the first place.

She said: ‘Seventeen years ago, Perugia was shocked by the murder of Meredith Kercher, which sadly made us famous throughout the world.’

Following Kercher’s murder, local universities saw a fall in enrolment as several bars, restaurants and clubs had to shut due to a lack of tourists.

‘Today that tragedy is being recalled and sensationalised in a TV series produced by the American, a figure who exists in public memory exclusively for her involvement in that crime and the sensational acquittal,’ Scoccia said.

‘It just brings back the horrible past,’ one bed and breakfast owner who remembers the tragedy said this week. ‘It’s too macabre.’

The mayor of Perugia – Vittorria Ferdinandi – has since issued an apology to locals in an open letter for allowing the filming to take place.

According to the Guardian, she claimed to have overlooked ‘the people and their sorrow, which is still alive in them.’

While also defending the decision, Mayor Ferdinandi said that the series ‘would have been filmed in any other town in our region’ and by allowing the crew to film in the Perugia it gave the local government more control over what was filmed.

Former Perugia public prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who led the murder investigation into Knox and her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, said that filming here and now is wrong, as it was dredging up unhappy memories for a city which was rocked to its core by the tragedy.

‘Everything that has happened – the murder, trial after trial (Knox and Sollecito were convicted and appealed twice) – has had “many repercussions”, he told the Mail earlier this month.

‘Since then, enrolments have declined at the University of Perugia because students no longer feel safe, as they used to. They don’t want to come here.’

The new series has already sparked controversy after Disney was slammed for their ‘lack of sensitivity’ by Kercher’s family.

The lawyer for the Kercher family, Francesco Maresca, said: ‘We’ve already spoken about this case too much and at a certain point you have to close the chapter.’

Speaking to The Times, she added: ‘However, Knox does not want to close the chapter. This continuous stirring is a demonstration of a lack of sensitivity.

‘She earns money, obtains visibility on the television after many years… It seems that Knox does not want people to forget about this story and does all she can to keep it alive.’

A statement from Kercher’s sister Stephanie said that ‘she will forever hold a lasting legacy in friendship and kindness that no media can change’ as she spoke of ‘an indescribable void’.

The real murderer of Kercher was eventually identified as Rudy Guede, from the Ivory Coast, after his DNA was found on her body.

He was sentenced to 16 years before being freed in 2021 as he only needed to serve 13 years due to good behaviour.

Knox is now 37 and has two children. She spends her time advocating for criminal justice reform and campaigning against wrongful convictions.

The new series is co-produced by Monica Lewinsky who became well-know for having an affair with the then-American president Bill Clinton – a story which Disney also decided to turn into a television drama.

Series bosses say it tells the ‘true story of how Amanda Knox was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher and her 16-year odyssey to set herself free’.

Lawyer Maresca has made disapproving references to talks Knox gave to American universities in 2018 for which she is reported to have been paid seven and a half thousand pounds for each.

Speaking to The Times, he went so far as to say that her calumny conviction being upheld cast doubt on her complete innocence.

‘Knox’s silence at the moment would have been the most appropriate thing,’ he concluded.