El Chapo Netflix documentary producer says Sean Penn has ‘only put himself at risk’ after actor claimed series placed him in danger
SEAN Penn will only have himself to blame if he is harmed as a result of a documentary about Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a Hollywood exec claims.
The Oscar winner claims he is fearing for his life over the release of a Netflix show that features an interview El Chapo granted to Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo in October 2015.
The actor’s lawyers warned the TV streaming service would have "blood on its hands" if a revenge attack was sparked by the doc's "reckless narrative" that he helped capture the world’s most wanted man.
The Day I Met El Chapo tells how the Oscar winner interviewed El Chapo for Rolling Stone mag days before the drug lord was arrested after being hunted following a daring prison escape.
Before the documentary aired, Mystic River star Penn, 57, insisted the idea that he had alerted cops was "a bald-faced lie".
But David producer Broome says they tried to get Penn involved in the documentary, but had no response until just two weeks before it aired.
He told : "There is nothing in this documentary that is going to be the cause of Sean being in any kind of harm's way.
"If Sean Penn is in any harm's way at all, it wouldn't be because of this documentary. It would be his own actions.
"I know what's in the doc. Nowhere do we say that Sean Penn was in cahoots, cooperating, working for, or with, the DoJ (Department of Justice) - or anyone else in the United States government prior to going down there."
Penn’s team had appealed for the film to be pulled, claiming it wrongly implied he colluded with US officials and could result in a revenge attack.
But Netflix has refused to ditch the "stranger-than-fiction" story.
Theodore J. Boutrous Jnr, Mr Penn’s lawyer, warned Netflix it was "hereby on notice that blood will be on their hands if this film causes bodily harm", according to the New York Times.
Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Penn, said: "It is reprehensible that, in their ongoing, relentless efforts to gain additional attention and publicity, Ms del Castillo and her team (who have zero firsthand knowledge) have sought to create this profoundly false, foolish, and reckless narrative.
"The notion that Mr Penn or anyone on his behalf alerted the Department of Justice to the trip is a complete fabrication and baldfaced lie. It never happened, nor would there have been any reason for it to have happened."
A Netflix spokesman said: "Penn was given the opportunity on multiple occasions to participate in ‘The Day I Met El Chapo’ and did not do so.
"The events surrounding the now-infamous meeting have been well covered, including by Penn himself in Rolling Stone and his many public comments since.
"The only new ground we’re breaking with this series is to give Kate a chance to finally tell her side of this stranger-than-fiction story."
When Penn met the El Chapo he had been on the run for five month since he famously escaped from Altiplano maximum-security jail in central Mexico through a mile-long tunnel in 2015.
The crime kingpin used a modified motorbike through a mile-long tunnel underground along specially constructed rails.
The £4 million tunnel, which took a year to dig, had been equipped with ventilation ducts, running electricity to power strip lighting and stairs.
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