Untitled Woody Allen Picture Shoots This Summer
Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 7:12PM by Nathaniel R
Chalamet & Fanning and Woody on the set of the ill-fated "A Rainy Day in New York"
For as long as we've been conscious of the movies, there's been a Woody Allen movie released every single year. That clockwork regularity ended with Wonder Wheel (2017). Amazon refused to release the completed picture A Rainy Day in New York which was meant for 2018 when the bad press kept mounting and some of that film's cast (Rebecca Hall and Timothée Chalamet, among them) disowned the film due to media pressure from the Farrow family's accusations against the director (unchanged since 1992 -- Woody was never officially charged after two separate investigations -- but revived very publicly/frequently since early 2014). The filmmaker and Amazon Studios are, last we heard, still in a pricey legal battle over their broken contract (even if you dislike Woody, one wonders what argument Amazon Studios could possibly come up with that's a winning one since they went into that contract with full knowledge of the accusations) but Woody has the greenlight from other sources for his 2020 picture, as yet untitled, which will begin filming in July...
The movie will use the San Sebastian Film Festival as its story backdrop and the plot involves an American husband and wife having separate affairs with a Spanish woman and a French film director while they fall in love with the fantasy of the movies all over again. So, a very Woody Allen plot... romantic affairs + movie magic. Given what's been going on with the press and American actors who worked with Woody Allen in the past, most of the cast are newbies to his filmography... though to be honest Woody had been drifting away from his old habit of reusing the same actors over and over again for quite some time anyway.
The new film will star Christoph Waltz and Gina Gershon (who we assume are playing the American couple though we might be wrong?), Spain's Elena Anaya (Wonder Woman, The Skin I Live In) who we assume is playing the Spanish woman the husband hooks up with), and longtime friend of Woody, Wallace Shawn (this will be his sixth Woody Allen picture). This has been an interesting trend in Woody's movies, for some time now, of drifting away from NYC as the mandatory setting.
Spain's Sergí Lopez (Pan's Labyrinth) and France's most ubiquitous male star Louis Garrel will also appear so we assume one of them is playing the French movie director who the wife takes up with since both of those actors star in French movies, Garrel more frequently of course since he's actually a Frenchmen. Good cast but, as is with any movie, it all depends on execution on all fronts. We used to wonder if Woody's one a year work habit was damaging his work (given the depreciating returns since the mid 90s) but perhaps in this time away he's been taking more time than usual with the writing?
Reader Comments (27)
Nobody cares about Farrow’s fraudulent allegation outside of the “morally-correct” USA.
Release his movies to the rest of the world!
It's not hard to predict that Waltz is going to mimic Woody's gestures and that he's going to be obnoxious as usual. Excited for Gina Gershon, Garrel and Sergi López.
Vittorio Storaro is doing the cinematography and Donostia is such a beautiful city.
Fadhil -- Rainy Day is getting a fall release in Germany, Italy and Spain.
At last, common sense prevails!
Christoph Waltz is the absolute worst.
Terrible, terrible actor.
this is a biased post
Me Too and Times Up don't care about art nor cultural legacy. They assume anyone can happen if Hollywood just backs them. Whatever as Streep said when denying Glenn Close on her 6th try.
I don't think people will ever fall in love with him again. Unlike other enduring stars. It's very hard to watch him or Mia Farrow in a couple of roles now. Or his acting out of his anger issues against women or infatuations with teenagers on screen. Disconnect this line.
Fuck Mia and Ronan Farrow and the rest of their bullshit. Give me new Woody Allen movies!!!!!
If I can be completely honest....not a big fan whether he’s a pedo or not. I haven’t really liked any of the movies I’ve seen of his. Self-fellating hokey tripe. Shamefully tho, I’ve never seen Annie Hall so who am I?
Me Too and Time's Up do care about art and cultural legacy, especially since many of them are involved in the arts. They just don't think that artistic impact and cultural legacy excuse, negate, or justify criminal and abusive behavior. And since their basis for existence is combating the widespread abuse of women by men in power, they are bound by their purpose to side with the Farrows. There is enough data out there that acknowledges that women who come forward about abuse are often telling the truth, and often lose far more than they gain when they come forward.
In Allen's case, there's certainly room for doubt as Allen has never been formally indicted and there have been some disturbing allegations about Mia that haven't received that much attention. That Allen slept with and then married his ex-girlfriend's young daughter certainly doesn't help his case, especially since what he did is almost textbook grooming behavior, but just because he's guilty of one atrocious act doesn't mean he's guilty of the other. That is a sad, sad defense though.
At this point, I do side with Dylan Farrow, but not necessarily with Mia. Watching his movies makes me feel gross. I'm grateful I'm not a critic and that I don't have to pretend to even muster any sort of critical distance, and luckily, there are so many wonderful artists out there that there is always something really wonderful at the buffet: I won't miss the gefilte fish.
I'm pretty much with Starlit here.
3rtful, those were some pretty knee-jerk, reductive comments.
.....and then Glenn deservingly lost on her seventh once more. It rankles as much as MeToo and quite frankly white people in most ways.
I juz curious which studio is throwing money to the wind? Allen is such a persona non grata now in the States, this sounds like a foolish investm. This "generous" studio dun hav to look far to see wat deep shit Amazon has gotten itself in
Claran-I think the assumption is that Allen's films will do well enough internationally that they could quite frankly avoid a domestic success (or even release) and still do well enough to break a profit. Most of his recent films have almost entirely made their money in Europe, specifically Spain & France, and as a result this is probably not that bad of an investment.
Just in general on this story I've thought about this many times, and while I find Woody Allen to be a sleaze at best, I'll never not love Annie Hall or Manhattan or Hannah and Her Sisters; separating the artist and the art is achievable here. I've seen pretty much every one of his films, and unlike most MeToo charges Allen's has at least seen a courtroom. I've also always been uneasy that Ronan Farrow, the man's son, has been lending the credibility he is due for going after people like Bill Cosby & Harvey Weinstein to go after Allen, disregarding how inappropriate and lacking in journalistic objectivity it is to pretend to be unbiased in defending a mother you love and a father you hate without perhaps handing this story off to a colleague who doesn't have the same emotional ties to the story.
I'm with starlit too. As much as I like his movies -he was once my favorite director- and I'll keep some of them in my heart forever, I just can't look the other way. It's a good thing his recent movies have been declining in quality so it doesn't seem like I'm missing much.
#metoo and Time's Up are so boring and meaningless.
Nobody cares what they think or say. :)
Happy for Woody - waiting for both movies (this and "Rainy Day")!
Woody Allen is by far the best, most prolific and influential american film director after the age of the great studios. Better than Spielberg, Coppola and Scorsese. The romantic comedies were never the same after Annie Hall, in the same way as the science-fiction with Star Wars and the blockbuster with Jaws.What director made The Radio Days, Hannah and Her Sisters, Zelig, Bullets Over Broadway, Manhattan, Interiors (this one I first saw a few months ago - wonderful)? What is his masterpiece among so many? Hard to say, since he is not a "one film director". And Mia Farrow, whether or not she will forever have her name attached to his, as well as Polansky's. Another advantage of Woody is that his films have low cost.
Never could really decide about the "he said, she said" quality of the problems between Woody and Mia. No one really knows what happened between the two. A previous commenter was right when he said Ronan Farrow should hand off coverage to someone not involved - that's plain journalistic integrity.
Nonetheless, the marriage between Woody and the Asian girl is kind of creepy. But he showed his affinity for teenage types in Manhattan and some other films.
Still and all, I enjoy his movies. I thought Midnight in Paris was wonderful.
I find the celebs who claim certitude about who's telling the truth in the Woody/Mia to be intolerably annoying and self-righteous. It's an obvious case of reasonable doubt, and so I've never had a problem separating the art from the artist in his case, even if his films are often about older men pursuing younger women.
His later films are hit-and-miss, but I wonder if only being able to shoot a movie every two years might be good for his creative process and produce better movies!
This post has nothing to do with Streep but Helen Sharp is always good for a laugh. It's sad Hollywood is regressing. Why are Woody and Mel Gibson being wooed?
I'm glad he keeps making movies
Tom Ford - Look at the presidential race. Look at Green Book. The world right now is all about validating elderly white men and their nostalgia trips.
Elaine May is having a moment. She's four years older than Allen. She's never been accused of sexual abuse. Why doesn't someone ask her to direct a film? It could actually be distributed in the US.
I swear sometimes the comment section on theses post are worst than Fox News
«We used to wonder if Woody's one a year work habit was damaging his work (given the depreciating returns since the mid 90s)...» Sorry, what?
Deconstructing Harry,
Small Time Crooks,
Sweet and Lowdown,
Match Point,
Scoop,
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,
Midnight in Paris,
To Rome with Love,
Blue Jasmine,
Café Society,
Wonder Wheel,
... just to name a few! Did you actually have the faintest look at them?
"Rainy Day" is also opening in Argentina in November. As to the purported abuse:
* Mia Farrow had a huge ax to grind what with Woody's relationship with her adopted daughter.
* Her son Moses has defended Woody Allen and said that Mia -who he says was physically abusive of her children- coached little Dylan about what to say. Why should we believe Dylan and not Moses?
* If the coaching did take place at such a young age, with the passing of time the mind of the child may get mixed up as to what really happened. So I'm not blaming Dylan. She may be convinced.
* Allen was cleared of all charges.
* Ronan should stop referring to Allen as his father, since (by Farrow's own admission in an interview) it's highly probable that Ronan is Frank Sinatra's son. You need only look at him to see whose genes he's got.
* In any case, we'll never know the truth. I'm simply stating an alternative scenario.
I was reading an interview with Dianne Wiest (she has two Oscars for Allen movies) the other day, and she said, in no uncertain terms that Mia Farrow is a crazy person who has been on a grudge crusade for 45 years. She added that she would work with Woody again in a minute. In a different, recent article, Angelica Huston basically said the same thing. Many would work with him, but they are afraid for their careers (cowards)!
It was laughable that Mia Farrow signed that petition against the Georgia Abortion Bill, which stated that all who signed would no longer work in Georgia. Mia Farrow hasn't worked since Woody (she was in two movies--in essence which were no more than small cameos. And that was over 30 years ago. No-one will hire her cause they no she's bat-shit!)