Would Allen film in Chicago?
Woody ‘would not hesitate’ to shoot here
During a rare visit to Chicago over the weekend, Woody Allen said Our Town would appeal to him as a potential filming site.
“I would not hesitate,” Allen said when I asked the writer and director about shooting here.
“The problem of finding venues to make a movie is to find a place where me and my family can live in for a few months without it getting boring or being uncomfortable. So I picked very good cities in the past,” added Allen, noting the locations of his recent non-New York movies such as “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “Midnight in Paris,” “To Rome With Love,” and “Blue Jasmine” (San Francisco, as well as New York).
“Chicago is a great city for that. It’s not boring. It’s full of excitement. It’s full of good restaurants and museums and bookstores. It’s a great place. I had a lot of good years in Chicago in the past.”
Reminded that he once told me Chicago is the best city in America for good Greek restaurants (“The one ethnic food we really don’t have properly represented in New York.”), the 78-year-old joked Saturday, “I used to look for good places for ribs here when I was younger. But I’m too scared to eat them now at my age!”
Illinois has improved its tax incentives for filmmakers, and the four-time Oscar winner also has a major investor in Chicago: Ron Chez, executive producer of Allen’s new “Magic in the Moonlight.” Allen walked the red carpet at the AMC River East multiplex Saturday night prior to a private screening for Chez’s friends of the movie, which opens Friday.
† Chez is committed to producing three more Allen movies, including the one that just began filming in Rhode Island with Emma Stone (star of “Magic in the Moonlight”) and Joaquin
Phoenix. Chez described it as “a murder mystery, set on a college campus.”
Not only was “Magic” Chez’s first involvement in the filmmaking world, but he joked about having a cameo in the movie. “Unfortunately, the entire scene was cut. … I just hope that doesn’t happen with a scene I’m supposed to be in in the next movie!”
†Asked about acting again in one of his films — he does not appear in “Magic in the Moonlight” — Allen said, “I’d love to act again if I can come up with a part that I’d want to play. It’s hard, because I can’t play the romantic lead anymore — and if I can’t play the romantic lead, I don’t want to be left playing ‘Gramps’ or the backstage doorman who looks at the chorus girls.
“I want to be the guy who sits opposite Scarlett Johansson or Charlize
Theron and grabs her across the table. It’s hard to do that now. I’m too old.”