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Woody Allen sues Amazon

Started by Monsieur Verdoux, February 07, 2019, 06:57:37 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/woody-allen-amazon-lawsuit-1203131466/amp/

Apparently they terminated his deal with them in June 2018, and reading between the lines, it seems like his latest film may never see the light of day.

Funcrusher

I was thinking maybe they'd called when he was out and left his Bix Beiderbeck box set in the rain.


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Another bad PR move from the legendary funnyman, Oscar-winning auteur and alleged child molester.

Can you win a court case when you're cancelled or is it like trying to get a mortgage when you're bankrupt?

kalowski

I hate the fact that he was investigated but no evidence was found and the case was not pursued. Like he was not guilty.
What a dilbert.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: kalowski on February 07, 2019, 10:00:12 PM
I hate the fact that he was investigated but no evidence was found and the case was not pursued. Like he was not guilty.
What a dilbert.

No idea what this means.

Quote from: thecuriousorange on February 07, 2019, 09:46:51 PM
Can you win a court case when you're cancelled or is it like trying to get a mortgage when you're bankrupt?

If Allen declares himself cancelled then the judge might be lenient.

Piggyoioi

you can add amazon to the other vapid actors that denounced him after working with him. i mean, this stuff about allen has been circulating for a long time, what changed? they're simply unprincipled people/corporations worried about their own optics.

Z

They'll reach a settlement where he gets the rights to the unreleased film

Has he made any steps towards making a new film? No way he isn't going to try.

Ant Farm Keyboard

#9
Quote from: Piggyoioi on February 07, 2019, 11:58:13 PM
you can add amazon to the other vapid actors that denounced him after working with him. i mean, this stuff about allen has been circulating for a long time, what changed? they're simply unprincipled people/corporations worried about their own optics.

There was also a op ed by his adoptive daughter where she claims again he molested her. And Ronan Farrow has gained a lot of credit through his work on the Weinstein case. Until then, it was rather convenient to assume that Mia Farrow had coached the both of them, with a case of "he said, she said." That said, another adoptive son, Moses, has accused his mother of brainwashing them all on that matter.

Also, Woody Allen is now 84, it's unlikely, from his latest films, he has another Manhattan or even Blue Jasmine in him (which also means that actors working with him are unlikely to get an Oscar and won't defend him as strongly as earlier), and the unreleased film, A Rainy Day in New York, was supposedly about Jude Law having or considering an affair with an underage girl played by Elle Fanning. True or false, the rumour dooms the entire project.

And finally, there was a change of regime at Amazon Prime/Amazon Studios after the moment they signed him. They had hired him because they assumed he would deliver to them a prestige TV show, he had full artistic freedom with the content, but he quickly took distance with the project, as he wasn't comfortable with the format, and gave them the A Crisis in Six Scenes miniseries, which was very coldly received. Because they had greenlit such projects, the heads of the unit were replaced (it also didn't help that the head of comedy was pushing his actress girlfriend into many major shows there, and that the studio boss left over sexual harassment accusations).  The strategy has shifted from niche, prestige content (with shows such as Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle or The Romanoffs) towards a more mainstream direct competitor to Netflix. Amazon Prime got a failed show from Allen, they see no benefit from handling the films that are still part of the same deal, that are leftovers from the old regime.

None of that sounds like much of a legal defence.

Rainy Day could have been the gut busting comedy the metoo moment was waiting for. Comic genius Jude Law is in it after all.

Wet Blanket

Quote from: Ant Farm Keyboard on February 08, 2019, 04:11:25 AM
A Rainy Day in New York, was supposedly about Jude Law having or considering an affair with an underage girl played by Elle Fanning.

Ha! Really? Fucking Hell Woody. Although I suspect the main reason it's been shelved is that the suits worked out it would be cheaper to face the lawsuits than put any more money into Allen's half-arsed late-period box-office stinkers. (Midnight in Paris notwithstanding. I didn't think Blue Jasmine was as much a return to form as a lot of the critics made out)

hedgehog90

I read the piece written by Moses Farrow and found it compelling and believable, so I'm tempted to believe he's not an infant molesting mega paed. Although I'm not that familiar with the case against Allen admittedly.

Funcrusher

Woody Allen does not currently have any criminal charges against him, nor has he been convicted of anything.

Blumf

I though Allen was a self facilitating media node who could finance his own projects. Has that changed, or is this just a deal that went sour?

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

No, he's never financed his own projects.

Funcrusher

I don't imagine that he'd have been making a film every year if his films were 'box office stinkers'. I assume that he works fairly quickly and cheaply, actors will work for him for lower rates and the resulting films do enough to turn an acceptable profit. Haven't watched one in decades but some people obviously do.

Wet Blanket

I've watched them all and some are dreadful, absolutely dreadful, but a few are really good (and did the business at the box office). Although I do believe that, yes, his returns got so bad that he was struggling to raise the money to make them, hence the excursions to Europe etc.

Midnight in Paris did megabucks, and Blue Jasmine was critically acclaimed, which probably helped him get the Amazon deal, but once there he went back to eeking out very lacklustre works. When they're good they're very good but when they're bad they're like watching a bad first draft put together badly and featuring indifferent performances from actors completely lost.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: hedgehog90 on February 08, 2019, 10:25:45 AM
I read the piece written by Moses Farrow and found it compelling and believable, so I'm tempted to believe he's not an infant molesting mega paed. Although I'm not that familiar with the case against Allen admittedly.

That was an eye-opening piece. Strange how it's largely dismissed. He's an alleged victim disputing the story of another alleged victim, so it's a confusing issue to take a stance on. Ronan Farrow was very dismissive, which should compromise his position as a powerful voice in the #MeToo movement. I'm not saying he should jump into Team Moses, but he should at least take the claims seriously, as has been the mission of his New Yorker stories.

Wet Blanket

My suspicion is Allen is a skeezy bastard but probably didn't molest his own daughter. That whole family is massively fucked up

Quote from: Z on February 08, 2019, 01:59:59 AM
They'll reach a settlement where he gets the rights to the unreleased film

That's what I would have assumed as well, but unless I've read the lawsuit wrong, Allen seems to only be claiming the money he is owed, and doesn't request the film rights.

hedgehog90

If there is so much doubt on the allegations I just don't understand why no one sticks up for the bugger.
All I've ever heard, besides the Moses piece, is round dismissal and condemnation, especially in the last few years.
I can't help but feel sympathetic towards the maybe-nonce.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: hedgehog90 on February 08, 2019, 11:08:26 AM
If there is so much doubt on the allegations I just don't understand why no one sticks up for the bugger.
All I've ever heard, besides the Moses piece, is round dismissal and condemnation, especially in the last few years.
I can't help but feel sympathetic towards the maybe-nonce.

He seems to get more condemnation for marrying his step-daughter, which is definitely true. Even if it's proven he never molested his daughter, he's still a creep to a lot of people.

Shit Good Nose

I don't think he's made a truly great film since Love and Death, and not a half decent one since Scoop (never got all the fuss about Blue Jasmine at all), and he's basically been remaking the same film over and over again for the last 25-odd years, so this news doesn't really bother me either way.

As for the allegations - Mia Farrow's been a nut-bar for fucking ages and I'm immediately inclined to take anything she says with a few buckets of salt, and Woody is, at the very very least, a bit of a dirty perv (I always thought Manhattan was a bit dodge, and I saw that back in the 80s, WAY before all the current metoo craziness, and to this day I'm surprised that more people don't mention it as being a bit "urgh"), and everyone involved has been a bit of a cunt in one way or another, so I don't think there are any heroes or winners in any of it.


daf

Quote from: Funcrusher on February 07, 2019, 07:02:54 PM
left his Bix Beiderbeck box set in the rain.

I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to order it
And I'll never hear that Hot Jazz parp again
Oh, nooo!

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on February 08, 2019, 12:13:27 PM
(I always thought Manhattan was a bit dodge, and I saw that back in the 80s, WAY before all the current metoo craziness, and to this day I'm surprised that more people don't mention it as being a bit "urgh")

Strange to think that Manhattan was lovingly restored and re-released in cinemas just two years ago. It's a really well-made, beautiful-looking film, no doubt about that, but there's no getting around the fact that the plot involves Woody's character - a 42-year-old man - going out with a 17-year-old girl. It's all a bit creepy, and yet the film is widely adored and regarded as a masterpiece.

Yeah my mum saw Manhattan when it came out and she found it dodgy as fuck even then, and it put her off Allen's films for life.

If we're getting into career assessments, I'd say that the last truly great film he made was Husbands and Wives, everything since then has been either an entertaining trifle, self-parody or straight drivel, with the possible exception of the agreeably spiky Deconstructing Harry

lipsink

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on February 08, 2019, 12:32:48 PM
Strange to think that Manhattan was lovingly restored and re-released in cinemas just two years ago. It's a really well-made, beautiful-looking film, no doubt about that, but there's no getting around the fact that the plot involves Woody's character - a 42-year-old man - going out with a 17-year-old girl. It's all a bit creepy, and yet the film is widely adored and regarded as a masterpiece.

I think I finally got to see it properly in about 2004 and while I really liked it, I still couldn't get my head around the central relationship and why everyone else seemed to be okay with this.

As regards the people stating they'll never work with Allen again: Actors are by and large, fickle, shallow arseholes who'll push anyone under the bus to protect their precious brand. The stuff about Allen has been public knowledge for nearly 30 years and now the tide has turned everyone's like "Oh, yeah I worked with Allen 5 million times when all that stuff was in the public knowledge but NOT ANYMORE I've suddenly decided just now..."

I've more respect for the people saying they'll still work with Allen.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Monsieur Verdoux on February 08, 2019, 12:42:48 PM
Husbands and Wives

Ah yeah good shout - I forgot about that.

But as you say he's made several perfectly watchable films since his "golden period", but hardly any of them are in danger of toppling the classics. 


Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on February 08, 2019, 12:32:48 PM
Woody's character - a 42-year-old man - going out with a 17-year-old girl.

Not only that, but she's still at school.  So she's still basically a child.  And they've already been together for a while.  And no one else in the film seems to think it's that odd.  Except for Woody, who is worried that she "might" be a "bit" too young for him...

I know I'm always moaning on here about people trying to apply current thinking to old films and situations that weren't really considered as very problematic, or where the thinking was different, back then, but that was fucking weird for a LOOOOOONG time before Manhattan was made.


That said, I still adore his early funny ones and always will, regardless of what revelations do or don't come out about him.

Z

I'd agree with Husbands and Wives being his last great one, although there are quite a few after that I like to some extent or another.

Part of me is honestly a bit happy he's getting dragged through the mud now. I care far more about his best films not being condemned to the trash heap outta some notion that he got away with whatever than I do about the man having a carefree final 20 years of his life (assuming he lives as long as his mother).



Blue Jasmine is a bizarre film, so thoroughly set in Woody Allen's fantasy idea of what the modern world is like. Cate Blanchett is great in it but I think the most interesting part of it is seeing just how disconnected from reality Allen seems to be.