WOODY GOES TO WAR WITH AMAZON
Sez film deal nixed over bogus kid-sex rap
Woody Allen says a decadesold allegation that he sexually assaulted an adopted daughter — which he calls “baseless” — is unfairly costing him a chance to earn Amazon millions.
The famed film director sued the online retail giant Thursday for backing out of a movie production deal worth $73 million over the longstanding allegation that Allen sexually assaulted Dylan Farrow when she was 7 years old.
Allen denounced the 25year-old assault accusation in the Manhattan Federal Court suit. His latest movie, “A Rainy Day in New York,” is in limbo because of the dispute, and he’s now looking for a new distributor.
The maker of the classic movies “Annie Hall,” “Manhattan” and “Hannah and Her Sisters” entered into the multipicture agreement with the Amazon Content Services and Amazon Studios in August 2017. The plan, Allen says, was to make four movies for Amazon.
The head of Amazon Studios at the time, Roy Price, told Allen the $1 trillion company wanted to be his “home” for the rest of his career, the suit says. Confident of his future with Amazon, Allen severed ties with his financial backers, say the papers.
But the arrangement began to unravel in late 2017 when Price resigned amid allegations he’d harassed the producer of an Amazon show, the suit says.
Then Dylan Farrow’s allegation that Allen abused her as a child resurfaced amid the #MeToo movement. Farrow, now 33 years old, angrily denounced Allen in a January 2018 CBS News interview.
“Why shouldn’t I want to bring him down? Why shouldn’t I be angry?” Farrow told interviewer Gayle King.
“Why shouldn’t I be hurt? Why shouldn’t I feel some sort of -- outrage that after all these years being ignored and disbelieved and tossed aside?”
Dylan Farrow first made the allegation in 1992, after her mother, actress Mia Farrow, discovered Allen, her partner, was in a relationship with another of Mia’s adopted children, Soon-Yi Previn. Allen and Previn married in 1997.
In June 2018, Amazon sent notice to Allen that it would not distribute the already completed “A Rainy Day In New York” and that the $73 million deal was off.
“Amazon has tried to excuse its action by referencing a 25-year old, baseless allegation against Mr. Allen, but that allegation was already well known to Amazon (and the public) before Amazon entered into four separate deals with Mr. Allen,” the suit says.
An attorney for Amazon wrote in an email included in the lawsuit that the allegation had made Allen toxic.
“Amazon’s performance of the agreement became impracticable as a result of supervening events, including renewed allegations against Mr. Allen, his own controversial comments, and the increasing refusal of top talent to work with or be associated with him in any way,” attorney Robert Klieger wrote.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.