Good news came on Sunday, courtesy of Italy’s Lucky Red. The Italian outlet reported that Woody Allen’s currently-in-limbo “Rainy Day in New York” was confirmed for an October 3rd Italian release date. This instantly led to speculation about a potential Venice Film Festival bow in September.
The ball may now be in Venice head Alberto Barbera’s court, who could very well be open to having ‘Rainy Day’ premiere on the Lido. This could turn out to be a much-talked about event for the movie world, as Allen has been, by all accounts, blacklisted in Hollywood due to allegations of sexual abuse resurfacing in the #MeToo era. The intensified campaigns from his enemies didn’t help either; ex-wife Mia Farrow and alleged-son Ronan Farrow, took the opportunity to double-down on the close to 25 year old allegations with carefully written op-ed and hit-pieces aimed squarely at the director. This led Amazon to cancel the release of “Rainy Day In New York,” which has resulted in Allen suing Amazon for defamation.
Despite the sudden stagnancy of his directing career, this hasn’t stopped Allen from performing, with his jazz band, every Monday night at Cafe Carlyle in New York City. A source has told me that after his performance on Monday, Woody told them that “Rainy Day In New York” was, indeed, vying for Venice. In fact, Allen added that he felt “determined” to get the movie at that festival.
Developing: “Rainy Day In New York” now has an official release date in Spain. According to RTVE, the film is set to be released on October 4th in Spanish cinemas. Spain joins Italy as the only other country to nail down ‘Rainy Day’ on their release schedule. I am told that, in the coming days, you can expect a lot more countries to announce dates as well, including France.