Woody Allen has launched a $68m legal action against Amazon, alleging the studio has broken a four-film deal the director signed with the tech giant in 2016.
Allen’s most recent film, A Rainy Day in New York, appeared to have been indefinitely shelved by Amazon despite the company being contractually obliged to release it, according to the film-maker. This followed the re-emergence of a sex-abuse allegation against the director by his daughter Dylan Farrow. Allen has always denied the claim. Authorities investigated but no evidence was found and the case was not pursued.
Allen’s filing in New York federal court 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.”
Allen also says he is owed $9m (£7m) by Amazon after financing the production of A Rainy Day in New York himself, and that Amazon committed to releasing the film for a minimum of 90 days. The complaint also says that Amazon attempted to terminate their agreements in June 2018 with no “legal or factual basis”.
Amazon first signed Allen in 2015 to make a TV series, signalling its intention to become a major player in the streaming sector. This project became the roundly criticised Crisis in Six Scenes. His 2017 feature film Wonder Wheel, starring Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake, was also produced by the studio. Allen then entered into a four-film contract with it, of which A Rainy Day in New York was the first, originally intended for release in 2018.
However, A Rainy Day in New York, which features Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning and Jude Law, became engulfed in controversy after an article by Farrow titled “Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?” appeared in the LA Times in October 2017. A number of Allen collaborators, including Chalamet, Rebecca Hall, Greta Gerwig and Colin Firth publicly disassociated themselves from the director. Chalamet donated his salary to charity, saying: “I don’t want to profit from my work on the film.”
However, Allen was defended by actors Javier Bardem and Jude Law, with the latter referring to the non-appearance of A Rainy Day in New York as “a terrible shame”.
Amazon Studios has not responded to a request for comment.