The 33, a new film based on the true story of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days, was supposed to celebrate the incredible strength and endurance of its subjects. Instead, nine of the survivors have alleged the contract purchasing the rights to their story was actually designed to cheat them out of film royalties.
In a recent article in The Guardian, the group’s leader, Luis Urzúa, explained why he and the other miners have filed a lawsuit for fraud against their lawyers, Remberto Rodrigo Valdés and Fernando Garci:
"The contracts we signed were not what the lawyers said they would be, for example of the $150m [£97m] paid to our company, we only received 17%. Today we’re being rescued for a second time."
These men have been through a level of trauma most of us can't even imagine. Five years after their rescue, they continue to struggle with psychological and health problems, many of them living in poverty. If anyone deserves to be compensated for the use of their life story, it is this group of incredibly brave men.
While the group's dispute is with their lawyers for presenting them with a misleading contract, it's only right for the studios involved in producing the film to publicly support the miners in their fight for fair compensation.
If these companies are able to throw their weight behind this lawsuit, it may make it easier for these men to receive justice. Please sign this petition to ask The 33's star, Antonio Banderas, and its production companies, Alcon Entertainment, Phoenix Pictures, and 360 Films, to pledge their support to the Chilean Miners their film is based on!
