Woody Allen. Credit: James Devaney/GC Images
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In 2017, Woody Allen signed a contract with Amazon, and his latest project, a feature called A Rainy Day in New York, was slated for release by the studio. The following June, after Jennifer Salke took over as Amazon’s head of studio from the disgraced Roy Price, Amazon backed out: Allen’s films were struck from the distribution list. The film-maker is now suing Amazon for a $68 million breach of contract.
Amazon and Allen had been on the verge of promoting Allen’s previous film, Wonder Wheel, in October 2017, when Allen made public statements in support of the disgraced Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein. In an interview with the BBC, he said:
“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved. Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey [that] his life is so messed up. There’s no winners in that. It’s just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that.”
Allen went on to lament the state of the American entertainment industry under the prevailing attitudes of #MeToo and #TimesUp. His perception was that this era of heightened suspicion between men and women would hinder creativity.
“You don’t want it to lead to a witch-hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself,” he said. “That’s not right either. But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation.”
When asked to explain himself, he said: “When I said I felt sad for Harvey Weinstein I thought it was clear the meaning was because he is a sad, sick man.”
Amazon alleges the director’s comments “sabotaged” its attempts to promote his movies.
These weren’t, of course, the first allegations of impropriety against Allen. His adopted daughter Dylan has said he molested her in 1992 when she was seven, which he strongly denies. The claims were repeated by her brother Ronan. Those allegations were thrown out by courts in Connecticut and New York but Ronan Farrow stands by them. Amazon knew about them when the deal with Allen was signed.
According to court documents filed in a Manhattan federal court seeking to dismiss some of the claims from Allen’s lawsuit, Amazon believes that “Understood in the broader context, Allen’s actions and their cascading consequences ensured that Amazon could never possibly receive the benefit of its four-picture agreement (despite already having paid Allen a $10 million advance upon signing)”.
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