Woody Allen sues Amazon Studios for dumping film
NEW YORK: Filmmaker Woody Allen has filed a $68 million suit against Amazon for breach of contract, accusing the streaming giant of cancelling a film deal because of a “baseless” decadesold allegation that he sexually abused his daughter.
Allen says Amazon sought to terminate the deal in June, and has since then refused to pay him $9 million in financing for his latest film, A Rainy Day in New York, his lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan allege.
That film was one of several to be produced with the Oscar-winning director under a series of agreements reached after Allen made the Crisis in Six Scenes programme for Amazon, which was then a new content provider.
He is seeking that $9 million along with minimum guarantees owed him for other films, totaling “in excess of $68,000,000”, according to a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in New York.
He says Amazon told him the deal had become “impracticable” because of “supervening events, including renewed allegations against Mr. Allen, his own controversial comments” and the refusal of actors to work with him.
Allen has been accused of molesting Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter, when she was seven years old in the early 1990s.
He was cleared of the charges, first levelled by his then-partner Mia Farrow, after two separate months-long investigations, and has steadfastly denied the abuse. Dylan, now an adult, maintains she was molested.
In June last year, the same month that Amazon terminated his contract, Allen backed the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment - and said he should be its poster boy.