It’s been a tumultuous last 20 or so months for Woody Allen, what with American distributors all but blacklisting the legendary writer-director, all due to dubious, already twice settled-in-court, claims, made by his ex-wife Mia Farrow, which resulted in the director’s “A Rainy Day in New York” being shelved by Amazon and never released in U.S. theaters. With all that being said, Allen has gotten back the rights to the film, which is set to premiere, according to my sources, at the Venice Film Festival next September and will then roll out in most of the major European movie markets.
Despite ‘Rainy Day’ not being released, Allen is about to shoot a new movie this July. We know that Christoph Waltz will star in Allen’s latest, which is said to be a romcom about a married American couple traveling to the San Sebastian Film Festival.
With Europe all but embracing Allen, whilst the timid-minded American market balks due to social media hounds, it is wonderful to see artists uniting to resist and defend Allen’s reputation. One of those is San Sebastian Film Festival’s director José Luis Rebordinos who tells IndieWire that he is excited that Allen has chosen San Sebastian as the setting for his new movie.
“We are delighted to have a master of the stature of Woody Allen shooting in San Sebastian and, in addition, that the film takes place at the San Sebastian Film Festival,” Rebordinos said in a statement. “It is a unique occasion for both the city and the Festival.”