The lack of consideration of the major Hollywood studios towards striking screenwriters is “indecent”, American actor Sean Penn judged on Friday in Cannes, giving his “full support” to the movement.
Thousands of American television and film screenwriters began a strike action on May 2 due to the failure of negotiations with the main studios and platforms relating in particular to an increase in their remuneration.
They are also demanding minimum guarantees to benefit from stable employment and a greater share of the profits generated by the rise of streaming.
Asked about this strike which is currently paralyzing Hollywood, the actor and director felt that “it is the industry which has paralyzed screenwriters, actors and directors for a very, very long time”, adding to provide “full support” to the screenwriters .
“There are a lot of new concepts being thrown around, including the use of artificial intelligence (to write scripts). It seems indecent to me that there is a kind of disinterest on the part of the producers”, added the actor to the poster of “Black Flies”.
At 62, Sean Penn is a committed actor, who has supported many causes and notably went to Ukraine where he shot a documentary presented in February in Berlin.
In Black Flies, directed by Frenchman Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, presented Thursday evening in competition at Cannes, the viewer follows the daily life of New York paramedics, Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan) and Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn), confronted with the violence of a city that never sleeps.