Los Angeles: American auteur Woody Allen has plans of directing “one or two more” films. However, for him “the thrill is gone” for making movies because of the decline of the theatrical experience, reports ‘Deadline’.
Allen expressed his wish during a conversation with Alec Baldwin, the actor who is currently facing legal proceedings for the fatal shooting of the Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the filming of the Western ‘Rust’ in October last year. The conversation between Allen and Baldwin was livestreamed on Instagram.
‘Deadline’ further states that while Allen plans to direct the movie, he hasn’t revealed details about the project, the 86-year-old filmmaker said he will direct a film that will shoot in Paris in the late-summer or early fall. His most recent film was ‘Rifkin’s Festival’, which grossed just $2.3 million, reaching the U.S. in a limited release earlier this year but making little impact in the marketplace.
The filmmaker has seen his career options narrow in recent years amid revived scrutiny around past allegations of sexual abuse. Book publisher Hachette also cancelled the publication of his memoir in 2020.
Even before Covid, Allen said, the challenging environment for traditional theatrical releases was starting to weigh on him. “When I started, you’d do a film and it would go into a movie house and movie houses all over the country, and people would come by the hundreds to watch it in big groups on a big screen,” he said.
“Now, you do a movie and you get a couple of weeks in a movie house, maybe six weeks, four weeks, whatever. And then it goes right to streaming or right to pay-per-view, and people love sitting home with their big screens and watching it on their television sets.” As a result, he continued, “It’s not as enjoyable to me.”
Over five decades, from the 1960s through the 2010s, Allen averaged about a film a year, writing and directing more than 50 features. In his new day-to-day routine, the filmmaker said, “I don’t have to be cold in the winter or hot in the summer or up at 5 o’clock in the morning, making decisions all day long.
I’m home and there’s nothing I can do but exercise, practise the clarinet and write. I was home writing a lot. I wrote a couple of plays. … I thought to myself, ‘What if I didn’t make films? This is a nice way to live.’ And I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll make one or two more.'”
–IANS
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