Sean Penn: Hollywood's lack of attention to striking screenwriters is 'inappropriate'

Actor and director Sean Penn has announced his full support for screenwriters. Archival

American actor Sean Penn said at the Cannes Film Festival that the failure of the major Hollywood studios to take into account the striking screenwriters is "inappropriate", stressing his "full support" for their demand movement.

Thousands of U.S. film and television writers went on strike on May 2 over the failure of negotiations with major studios and platforms, particularly related to wage increases.

The screenwriters also demand a minimum guarantee to benefit from fixed functionality and a greater share of the profits generated by the boom in streaming services.

In response to a question about this strike that is currently paralyzing Hollywood, actor and director Sean Penn considered that "it is the sector that has been paralyzing screenwriters, actors and directors for a very, very long time," declaring "full support" for screenwriters.

The actor, who stars in the Cannes film "Black Flys", added: "Many new concepts have been introduced, including the use of artificial intelligence (to write scripts). It seems to me that it is inappropriate that there is a kind of lack of interest on the part of the producers."

Sean Penn, a committed actor, 62, has already supported many causes. He went especially to Ukraine, where he shot a documentary that was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

In Jean-Stéphane Souver's "Black Flys," which premiered Thursday in official competition at Cannes, spectators follow the daily lives of New York medics Uli Cross (Ty Sheridan) and Jane Rotkowski (Sean Penn) in the face of the violence of a city that never sleeps.