The Fremantle subsidiary Arrow Pictures has produced “Cecil”, a documentary about the death of Africa’s biggest lion, for Channel 4 in the UK. Cecil was once the biggest tourist attraction in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park and part of an Oxford University research program. The lion was killed with a bow and arrow by American dentist Walter Palmer in 2015. The story of this killing went viral, and Cecil became a universal icon for endangered species everywhere, leading to his image being projected onto the side of the Empire State Building and Palmer feeling the force of cancel culture. The documentary will be available on Channel 4 on February 19 and gives voice to a wide range of perspectives, including trophy hunters, safari operators, local communities, conservationists, and those directly entangled in the hunt and ensuing criminal proceedings. The documentary probes the legal and moral complexities of trophy hunting, directly confronting the question: who truly benefits when nature is turned into an industry?
RTL GroupLondon–02/09/2026
