Amazon may not release new Allen movie
As Woody Allen finished shooting his latest film, the studio boss who had approved it resigned and several leading actors expressed regret for appearing in the piece and promised to donate their salaries to charity.
If this boded ill for the box-office takings of A Rainy Day In New York, Allen must now contend with a bleaker prospect: that it may not be released at all.
Amazon, which financed the production, has shelved the film, according to the New York Post. It was reported earlier that the company had decided to sever its ties with Allen, even at the risk of a large financial penalty.
The cast includes Jude Law, Rebecca Hall and Timothee Chalamet, who is one of the youngest actors to have been nominated for an Oscar, for Call Me by Your Name.
Allen has described the film as a romance. ‘‘I find rain romantic,’’ he said. ‘‘Unfortunately, while we were shooting it didn’t rain.’’
Rain machines were lugged on to set. ‘‘I had to make some myself,’’ he said. Amazon Studios, a relatively new but well-financed player in Hollywood, is said to have put up US$25 million (NZ$37.6m) for the film and shooting began in summer last year.
Not long after, Ronan Farrow, Allen’s son with Mia Farrow who is a lawyer, diplomat and investigative reporter, published an investigation in The New Yorker magazine giving allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Harvey Weinstein.
The story toppled the mogul from his perch in Hollywood and triggered inquiries by the New York police department that eventually brought him into a courtroom in New York to face criminal charges.
Allen was not mentioned in the piece but Farrow had previously sought to highlight allegations made by his sister, Dylan Farrow, that their father had sexually assaulted her when she was seven. Allen has denied the claim, saying that his ex-partner coached their daughter to make the claims during their divorce fight in 1993; an argument now supported by Dylan’s elder brother, Moses.
The allegation was investigated at the time but a prosecutor decided not to press charges, yet for some time afterwards Allen, who had married his ex-partner’s adopted daughter, was shunned by Hollywood.
He was rescued by Weinstein, who boasted that ‘‘Chaplin was shunned by Hollywood, so were a great many other international film-makers and those are the people who belong with Miramax’’.
As Farrow’s reporting helped to bring down Weinstein, and the #MeToo movement laid low a host of other powerful figures, Roy Price, the Amazon Studios boss who had negotiated the contract for Allen’s film, resigned amid accusations of sexual harassment.
In February Dylan Farrow gave a tearful televised interview in which she described being molested by Allen.
Hall said that she regretted working on the film. ‘‘My actions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed,’’ she said in a post on Instagram.
Chalamet said that his contract forbade him from speaking frankly but added: ‘‘I don’t want to profit from my work on the film.’’ He said he would donate his salary to sexual abuse charities.
Neither Allen nor Amazon responded to a request for comment.