Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes asks Netflix, Amazon to help Covid-hit entertainment sector

KATHMANDU: English director Sam Mendes has asked Netflix and Amazon to come to the front to financially support theatre and live entertainment that ave been facing danger amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In an article for the Financial Times, the Skyfall director wrote: "It would be deeply ironic if the streaming services — Netflix, Amazon Prime et al — should be making lockdown millions from our finest acting, producing, writing and directing talent, while the very arts culture that nurtured that talent pool is allowed to die. Is there anyone among those people willing to use a fraction of their COVID-19 windfall to help those who have been mortally wounded?".

IANS futher quoted the 1917 director as writing: "If so, I hope you're reading this, and that you are able to think of the arts landscape as more than just a ‘content provider', but instead as an ecosystem that supports us all," he added.

Calling the current situation the "biggest challenge to Britain's cultural life since the outbreak of the Second World War", Mendes wrote: "The country's theatres and actors, musicians and music venues, dancers and dance spaces, concert halls and opera houses are all under threat. The theatre needs a plan, and I believe we have one."

He suggested that as theatres cannot re-open in the short term, a package must be created to sustain the workforce of freelancers and self-employed artists. In the long term, he suggested a 'Cultural Investment Participation Scheme' — a three-year increase in tax relief for the sector, revealed IANS.

He was further quoted as writing: "This is not a request for a handout, or for long-term life support. It is an offer for the government to become partners in a successful business."