Woody Allen will not go down without a fight.
After accusations of child molestation being brought back to the forefront last year, most notably by Ronan Farrow and Mia Farrow, the filmmaker, whose latest work “A Rainy Day in New York” seems to be in total limbo, has decided to sue Amazon for $68 million
THR reports that the lawsuit filed has Allen asking for $68 million because Amazon decided to cancel his multi-film deal. He says the breach of contract is due to “a 25-year-old, baseless allegation.”
The complaint states, “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 — and, in any event it does not provide a basis for Amazon to terminate the contract. There simply was no legitimate ground for Amazon to renege on its promises.”
The specific amount of $68 million is based on his guaranteed earnings from the four films, plus damages and attorney’s fees.
The lawsuit continued, “Despite repeated requests from Plaintiffs, Defendants have not identified any provision in any of the Allen Film Agreements giving Amazon Content the right to terminate—and, in fact, no such provision exists. In short, after Defendants used Mr. Allen to promote and build Amazon Studios’ standing as a full-fledged film studio, they discarded him, repudiated the Allen Film Agreements, and refused to honor their commitments to him or Gravier.”
Allen did not release a film last year due to Amazon refusing to show “A Rainy Day in New York", this was the first time he hadn’t released a film since 1981. In fact, if Allen doesn’t have a movie again this year then it would be the first time since his career began, back in 1966, that he would not have released a movie in two straight years.
Thank the heavens that Woody has finally stood up for his good name.
He has the guts to speak the truth and not be afraid of the mob mentality that has all but become a herd-like symptom in Hollywood. Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Hall, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Mira Sorvino, Collin Firth, Marion Cotillard, and Chloe Sevigny should have read Robert Weide's immaculately drawn and fact-filled defense of Allen, which has excellent dissections of Allen vs Farrow. If you are the kind of person that is open-minded and would rather inform his or herself rather than be lazy and just trust fake news, then, please, by all means, read Robert Weide's 12.13.17, 5.30.16, and, most recently, 1.14.18 takes for the most concise overview of the smear campaign going on against Allen.
Javier Bardem, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Diane Keaton and Alec Baldwin have all bravely refused to adhere to mob-fandom and condemn Allen, a director they've all worked with in past films. I assume they have read enough about the case to raise their own conspicuous doubts.
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.