Acting with Daughter, Sean Penn Explores Family Ties in Cannes Film

Director Sean Penn and cast member Dylan Penn at Cannes. (Reuters)
Director Sean Penn and cast member Dylan Penn at Cannes. (Reuters)
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Acting with Daughter, Sean Penn Explores Family Ties in Cannes Film

Director Sean Penn and cast member Dylan Penn at Cannes. (Reuters)
Director Sean Penn and cast member Dylan Penn at Cannes. (Reuters)

Sean Penn said on Sunday he nearly passed up the chance to act opposite his daughter Dylan for the first time in “Flag Day”, his latest movie which is vying for awards at the Cannes Film Festival - until actor Matt Damon egged him on.

Oscar-winning Penn plays John Vogel, a real-life wheeler-dealer who lurched from one failed business venture to another, causing heartbreak for daughter Jennifer, who reveres him.

Based on a book by journalist Jennifer Vogel, Penn told a news conference in Cannes that he had an image of daughter Dylan when reading the script - but took some convincing to step into Jennifer’s father’s shoes, when he was already down to direct.

“The last effort I made to not play it was when I sent the script about a month and a half before shooting started to Matt Damon, who called me, not to say that he could do it, not to say that he can’t do it, but to say that I was a stupid schmuck not to do it,” Penn said.

Vogel was a notorious petty criminal who ended up involved in counterfeiting, although “Flag Day” is more interested in how he dupes those he loves and lies to himself.

The “Into The Wild” director’s latest effort behind the camera has so far earned him mixed reviews, with critics at Screendaily pointing to holes in the way the characters are presented, including Jennifer’s transition from an angst-ridden teenager to a budding journalist.

Most reviewers praised the acting duo at its center, however, including Dylan’s performance, and Sean Penn as the exuberant, fun-loving father who tries to keep up his great illusion as his American dream goes awry.

‘Both alpha’
The film is competing against entries from other big name directors such as Wes Anderson, in the festival’s return to the French Riviera after it was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19.

Dylan Penn is also joined by her real-life brother Hopper Jack Penn on screen. Their mother Robin Wright, also an actress, divorced Sean Penn in 2010.

“I went into this project looking at it as this is my job, ... this is my boss,” Dylan Penn said, adding that their relationship was very different in real life to that of John and Jennifer Vogel. “We’re both alpha, that can sometimes clash, but think it worked out in the end.”

Penn, who is also involved in philanthropy and organized a COVID-19 testing and vaccination campaign and sites in the United States, lambasted former US President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic during the news conference.

“When my team and I would come home from test and vaccinations sites at night ... to maddening news - it really felt like there was someone with a machine gun gunning down communities that were most vulnerable from a turret at the White House,” Penn said.

He said the Trump administration’s main contribution to tackling the health crisis before the late 2020 election had been to pre-order vaccine doses.



Robert Pattison Sci-fi ‘Mickey 17’ Opens in 1st Place, but Profitability is a Long Way Off

Robert Pattinson, left, and director Bong Joon Ho pose for photographer at the photo call for the film 'Mickey 17' at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Robert Pattinson, left, and director Bong Joon Ho pose for photographer at the photo call for the film 'Mickey 17' at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
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Robert Pattison Sci-fi ‘Mickey 17’ Opens in 1st Place, but Profitability is a Long Way Off

Robert Pattinson, left, and director Bong Joon Ho pose for photographer at the photo call for the film 'Mickey 17' at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Robert Pattinson, left, and director Bong Joon Ho pose for photographer at the photo call for the film 'Mickey 17' at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

“Parasite” filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s original science fiction film “Mickey 17” opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone “Captain America: Brave New World” after a three-week reign.
Overseas, “Mickey 17” has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.
A week following the Oscars, where “Anora” filmmaker Sean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – “Mickey 17” is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It’s an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.
Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Parasite” faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel “Mickey7” by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo also star.
It opened in 3,807 locations domestically where it performed best in New York and Los Angeles. Premium large format showings, including IMAX screens, also accounted for nearly half of its opening weekend. Internationally, it did especially well in Korea, where it made an estimated $14.6 million.
Second place went to “Captain America: Brave New World,” which added $8.5 million from 3,480 locations in North America and $9.2 million internationally. Its global total currently rests at $370.8 million. The Walt Disney Studios is on track to become the first studio to cross $1 billion in 2025 sometime this week.
Holdovers “Last Breath,” “The Monkey” and “Paddington in Peru” rounded out the top five. The weekend also had several other newcomers in “In the Lost Lands,” a fantasy film from Paul W.S. Anderson starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista, and Angel Studios' “Rule Breakers,” about Afghani girls on a robotics team.
Neon upped the theater count for “Anora” to nearly 2,000 screens after it won five Oscars on Sunday, including best picture, best director and best actress. It earned an estimated $1.9 million (up 595% from last weekend), bringing its total grosses to $18.4 million.
According to data from Comscore, the 2025 box office as a whole is up 1% from where it was last year on this weekend and down 34.2% from the last pre-pandemic box office year of 2019.