Sean Penn blasts Netflix over series on his meeting with El Chapo

Los Angelesm, Oct 21 (IANS) Actor Sean Penn is not happy with video streaming app Netflix for making a docu-series about his infamous meeting with Mexican kingpin El Chapo.

The actor called the documentary "cheap" and "reckless" ahead of its release on Friday, October 20, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"This is nothing but a cheap, National Enquirer-esque tale spun be a delusional person whose hunger for fame is both tawdry and transparent," Penn's representative said.

Penn met Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in October 2015 with the help of Mexican actress Kate del Castillo when the kingpin was still on the run after he escaped from a high-security prison in 2001 through a tunnel.

The actor published their meeting on Rolling Stone magazine in January, just one day after the criminal was re-captured.

The 57-year-old movie star met El Chapo under the guise of a possible film production about the drug lord's life. Mexican law enforcement officials later claimed that the meeting led them to the drug lord, but Penn denied it.

In reply to Penn, an official statement from Netflix 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."