Woody Allen movie dropped by Amazon to get European release
A Rainy Day in New York, the film completed by Woody Allen in 2018 but left in limbo after backers Amazon Studios terminated its agreement with him, is set for release in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.
According to Variety, distributors Lucky Red have purchased rights to the film in Italy and plan to release it on 3 October, leading to speculation that it may be screened at the Venice film festival, which begins on 28 August. Deals are also believed to be in place to release the film in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. There is no indication yet of any release in the US or UK.
Described as a romantic comedy, and starring Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez, Jude Law and Elle Fanning, A Rainy Day in New York has become a lightning rod for controversy since the re-emergence of sex abuse allegations against Allen by his daughter Dylan Farrow, which Allen has always denied. A number of actors, including Chalamet and Gomez, as well as previous collaborators such Colin Firth and Rebecca Hall, expressed their regret at working with him. Others, including Javier Bardem and Anjelica Huston have defended the director. Allen is currently working on a film due to shoot in Spain and backed by Spanish media giants Mediapro.
Amazon said its agreement with Allen was terminated in 2018 after postproduction work on A Rainy Day in New York had been completed. Allen subsequently launched a $68m (£52m) breach of contract legal claim against the studio.
In legal documents, Amazon attributed the failure of his films to the director’s controversial comments over allegations of sexual abuse and the #MeToo campaign, and this warranted its ending a multi-picture deal with him: “Despite immediate consensus on the importance of acknowledging and addressing this issue, Allen made a