Journalists Nix Johnny Depp San Sebastian ‘Modi’ Junket & Coverage Over Lack Of Access

deadline.com:

A dozen journalists who were due to interview Johnny Depp on new film Modi at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Tuesday walked out of the junket in protest after the publicists running the event tried to shoehorn them all into one shortened roundtable session.

Saying that such a format is unworkable, the journalists said they would be boycotting coverage of the film. The action marks a further escalation of growing discontent among the international film press corp.

over lack of access to talent launching their films at festivals, which was first signalled at Venice. The journalists had originally been expecting to interview Depp alongside cast members Riccardo Scamarcio and Antonia Desplat for 15 minutes in groups of six at the junket run by DDA.

Italian freelance journalist Marco Consoli, who is leading the protest, said they agreed to the format even if it were not their preferred option. “We all wanted Johnny Depp, but as happens more frequently, we were offered a roundtable with Johnny, Riccardo Scamarcio and Antonia Desplat,” he explains. “We all think this is not the right way to discuss a film with a talent, especially when the talent we are interested in, Johnny Depp, is also the director and producer of the film.” Things went from bad to worse for the journalists, says Consoli, when the film team failed to arrive on time and DDA informed the journalists that all of them would be squeezed into a shortened roundtable session with Depp, Scamarcio and Desplat.