Here’s something that I and no doubt millions of film fans never thought they’d see: a year without a Woody Allen movie. While he did release the critically-panned Wonder Wheel last year, nothing is announced for him this year and nothing is on the horizon for 2019. We’ve come to expect an annual effort from Allen to arrive like clockwork, and they have each year since 1981, but it seems the current climate and a woeful lack of box office results has taken a toll.
According to Page Six (Grain of salt time, folks), Allen has no projects in the pipeline right now, as he is considered toxic during the #MeToo movement. The director has completed work on A Rainy Day in New York, but questions about its release remain as many in the cast have expressed concern or outright regret at working on it due to resurfaced allegations of sexual abuse against Allen. Ironically, these charges have been spear-headed by Allen’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, while his son Ronan Farrow has been a vocal voice of the #MeToo surge.
The story also says that Allen is having difficulty securing financing for a new picture because his movies just don’t make money. He’s currently in the midst of a multi-picture distribution deal with Amazon Studios, and it’s possible A Rainy Day In New York gets released by them at some point, but their association is on shaky ground, at best.
I feel like if Allen goes too long without a movie then he will be finished as a director. We’ve grown so accustomed to a new movie by him each year that it sort of kept going out of sheer momentum. His films haven’t made bank in ages and yet they kept getting the green light and attracting huge stars. Now with this backlash there’s no reason anybody has to fund another Allen film, and we may have seen the last of him. So yeah, Allen is taking a break but it’s not exactly one he asked for, is it?
