As long as Woody gets the DP from Slumdog, who made Frieda Pinto look ravishing in every shot. I saw her on Leno the other day and then on the Oscars, and she was nowhere near as striking on either.

No film should ever be shot like Slumdog, what the hell

Get your Woody Allen brooch.

Is it horrible that I'd consider buying that?

You can't anyway. It's sold out.

I suppose this will get moved to the specific film thread when it gets created, but this is unusual for Woody:

According to an Indian press report Frieda Pinto is getting $3 million for her role in Woody's summer 2009 London project.

Which, of course, is unheard of for a Woody film for an acting talent to be getting paid more than scale - nevermind $3million. And this all comes on the heels of Woody hiring Pinto based on the Slumdog Oscar buzz.

I'm not so keen on this... I was hoping Woody would be using the extra $8million or so budget for the next 3 films he is signed to MediaPro with for other things (period pieces, more music, more ellaborate locales / production ideas, etc).

Does anyone know of any examples when an acting talent got paid this much for a Woody role?

Knowing Woody, I'll be highly skeptical of that figure until I see it confirmed in a few publications. Then again, the bigger the budget, the harder it probably is to to ask the cast to take scale.

It is possible that the report is erroneously adding an extra zero to that figure, which would be the rounded up version of scale I believe. But still - it is unlikely that the entire cast is getting more than scale for a $23m pic - certainly Hopkins, Brolin, Watts et al would all get at least equal to Pinto, which would put the budget at $15m for leading acting talent alone, which is what Woody usually has for a budget... I doubt that he would take advantage of the bigger budget to pay for the stars he wants to use in a trade off for shrinking his overall production budget by nearly half. Especially knowing how frustrated Woody has been with the rising costs of production not matching his budget, which has resulted in him making major compromises musically for his films for the last 4 films (to varying results)... which considering how important Woody's music is to his films is indeed a major compromise for him.

I suppose we'll have to see if anyone bothers to ask him about this in one of the interviews - if any journalist out there is doing their homework on what to talk to Woody about (which, sadly, is rarely ever the case), this should be one of them.

I'm also not so thrilled with the idea Woody is just jumping on the Slumdog Oscar train - especially if he's just throwing millions at a pretty face who has a little one card hot hand right now. It's usually the other way around - Woody finding young acting talents and Oscar types throwing millions at them after their appearance in a Woody film.

I would not be surprised if MediaPro forced Pinto on him not only to get a young, hot, Oscar winner into the picture, but also to give the film a marketability in Asia that previous Allen films have never had. My guess is MediaPro ok-ed the $3 million and bumped the overall budget of the film, with the knowledge that their projected box office take will now be bigger with a whole new theatrical/DVD territory to take advantage of.

AWA, what music compromises did Woody have to make in the last few films?

That is a possibility and makes sense - but that doesn't sound like something Woody would normally do - he's certainly had numerous "offers" of that kind that aim at getting a bigger overall box office return and not for artistic reasons and Woody has always turned them down... perhaps until now? He has never cared about making films to enhance his box office figures, much less making casting or any kind of artistic decision to do so. I really hope there is a journalist out there with a half a brain enough to see this and ask about it... but knowing how 99.9% of journalists who interview Woody don't know what to ask him about and how Woody lays his usual traps for them ("I haven't influenced anyone...", "I'm a lazy filmmaker...", "I'm not an intellectual...") that they fall right into and never get out of, I don't have high hopes for this becoming a news worthy item and it will likely take some significant digging over time to find out for sure.

But even if your theory is true, oreven if the $3m figure isn't true, the reality is Woody hired Pinto on the basis of her post-Oscar Slumdog buzz and that's unusual for Woody - as I said before, it's usually the other way around.... the $3m figure (that would have Joffe rolling in his grave if true) is bad enough, but the prospect of Woody trying to get a hot hand in his film just because is very un-Woody.


He never had the budget for the music he wanted, but being musically well educated, he has managed to find ways around it successfully. Match Point only featured Caruso recordings when Woody realized he had no money left in the budget for music and, by luck, got the Caruso recordings when a recent re-issue of them came out - they're copyright free, so it didn't cost him anything. Say what you will about Match Point, but obviously it was successful.
Scoop used classical music for similar reasons, also to good effect.

Cassandra's Dream originally had a Miles Davis soundtrack. Lax told me in my interview with him that was all set to go but they couldn't get the rights to fit in the budget, so Woody filled in the music parts with getting Philip Glass to do the score... and I know Cassandra's Dream has it's fans out there, but to me the Glass score went to great lengths to damage what Woody was trying to accomplish in the film. The ominous music is a dead give away about how the film will play out, it never tries to help Woody's story, never really suggesting that the outcome might be different than the tone of the music is constantly suggesting from the second the film starts. It is clearly the result of Woody having no real experience in overseeing the scoring of original music for a film and how it works within the film itself and it also speaks to how Woody wouldn't dare second guess Glass' contributions, even though it probably would've been best to do so sometimes. He says as much in the Lax "Conversations..." book. I can't help but think that the variety that the Miles Davis music would've brought to the emotions in the film might've made the story more compelling and intriguing... it certainly would've enhanced the romance side of it and might have added a unique thematic contradiction to the murder aspect of the story. This was (as Woody admits) a major compromise that was only the last resort and, IMO, a major failing of an otherwise decent film.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona also suffered from the lack of funds for the music Woody wanted to use, but he was aware of that going in and was thinking about what he might be able to do work around that - as such, when the CD by Giulia y los Tellarini was slipped under his door of his apartment, he wasn't adverse to giving it a listen in his car on his way to the shoots... and as a result he ended up using it which cost him nothing. A stroke of good luck helped him out there and the music helped give VCB a fresh feel that worked well with the story and characters.

No word on what music is going to populate Whatever Works yet, but considering this is more in line with a classic Woody/NYC affair, more than likely Woody would want to fill this with some old jazz... which he has not been able to afford on $15m budgets since Melinda & Melinda as his budgets haven't been rising to match the increased costs involved with filmmaking - especially music publising and sync fees - over the course of the last 10 years. Considering Whatever Works is the last film he's making before starting on his new 3 film-MediaPro-$23m per film deal, it will be interesting to see if he's managed to maneuver under the budget constraints enough to find the cash to put in some of the old jazz or what his options are going to be if he can't afford to do it.
It is hard to believe that it will have been **a half a decade** this year since a Woody film had a single second of old jazz recordings used in it.

A few pages back in this thread this rising costs / static budget issue was addressed in how, after Celebrity in 1998, a lot of the regular Woody crew has given their pink slips to cut down on costs.... and part of the reason for his struggles since 2000 has been a result of not being in stable working relationships that used to be the hallmark of his career... and that financial problem spread to the music side of things in 2005.

Thanks very much for the fascinating info AWA. Always a pleasure to read your posts on Woody!

As for the Pinto and MediaPro situation, I guess we'll never know for sure, but perhaps Allen's bigger budget is allowing the producers to have a bit more influence in key decisions than Allen or his fans are used to. Let's just hope Pinto is up to the task because frankly, aside from being attractive, her performance in Slumdog Millionaire is hardly earth shaking.

Very interesting about the music. Considering Woody's casting process I doubt Pinto is a stunt and if that number is right then maybe the studio has more faith in the picture with her in it.

Hey, I'm just glad someone's reading!


If that is the case, that really is unfortunate as it would mean Woody has opted for the extra budget funds he needs and finally admitted that such sacrifices are necessary for him to continue to make films the way he does. He left American funding behind for this sole reason, so for him to make such a concession with the European funding is not only a dark cloud day for Woody but also for any other working or aspiring independent filmmakers who aspire to modest ambitions on similarly modest professional budgets. What you're capable to pay for on $10-$15 million seems to be increasingly less and less ... the gap between the small budget indies that don't get a lot of attention and the bigger budget productions which do seems to be getting increasingly wider. Which is one reason I hope this is just some misinformation.

I agree too about the doubts with Pinto's performance capabilities... her role in Slumdog was exceptionally shallow as the basis for love with the main character was that she looked pretty and they shared shelter together when they were children. For all the depth of the character that script gave her she might as well have been a CGI creation for all the character acting she needed to do in that film. Supposedly she is playing the "ingenue role" in the film, which should at least play into any weaknesses she may have as an actress.


That's partially what worries me. Woody's casting process is based on him seeing your ability in other films (or occasionally theatre) and making a quick judgment while meeting them in person briefly (which is usually around 5 minutes in length). Woody's casting process is so simplistic that it wouldn't put her in any kind of situation to pass or fail, really - usually small time actors that do get hired are on the basis of some strength in previous peformances (however small) and the professional big-names Woody gets are based on their abilities being quite clear to begin with and their desire to challenge themselves and prove to others they are capable of succeeding in a challenging character-based, dialogue heavy role, which only enhances their value afterwards.

Pinto was a model, whose motion "acting" capability was limited to walking and smiling... or walking and look sexy-moody. Or being able to walk in goofy clothing or whatever. Which, arguably, is all she did in Slumdog anyways with that puddle of a character.
She actually took acting lessons after completing Slumdog, worse yet - theatre acting lessons... which of course is a very different method/process than film acting. If you want to ruin your little indie production, cast some of your local theatre actors to see an exaggerated form of the differences.

Considering the timing of the hiring seems to be that Slumdog's Oscar hype was the only reason Woody's team expressed interest in her, I also doubt Woody saw enough of her in Slumdog to really make that his main motivation, if it was in fact Woody motivating this decision at all and not MediaPro representatives.

I was really eager to see what would become of the MediaPro 3-film deal - and I thought that at least half that increased budget would free up Woody to fill his films with whatever music he so desired again and the remainder on anything interesting he wanted (***especially*** re-shoots, which he has not had the budget to do in the past decade or so that was an essential part of his editing process in his career prior to the financial squeeze). Everything had me excited - the cast, the fact that he could shoot anywhere he wanted, the fact he confirmed he would indeed be able to do his Paris project again... but this news about Pinto, with or without the $3mill payday info, is tainting this deal and has me concerned that a potentially perfect scenario for Woody to get focused on making some great material is going to instead produce films handicapped by flavour of the month acting talents like Pinto whose abilities to carry a role in a Woody film are in doubt. I certainly don't hope the reviews for this London project aren't talking about how great the film is until Pinto comes on the screen to make a populace-appealing cameo that sinks the film.

EDIT NOTE: It is also worth pointing out here that this is the first Woody film since Sleeper in 1973 to ***not*** have Juliet Taylor involved in Casting. I'm not sure why at this point, but that might also be indicative of some casting clauses in this 3-film deal with MediaPro. Or maybe Juliet has gone the way of the remaining Woody regulars who survived Jean Doumanian's late 90's purge and just simply retired due to their age (?).

The Casting Director for this London project is Gail Stevens... who, oddly enough, was the Casting Director for Slumdog Millionaire. Which is no doubt where at least some of the input on Pinto's abilities are coming from.

Jack Rollins (the other half of the Rollins-Charles Joffe producer team that guided Woody from the standup circuit to cinema) also looks to be officially retired now, his last picture being VCB, so perhaps that is also another factor - different representation (seemingly more and more his sister Letty these days) waging a different type of war on Woody's behalf is resulting in different results.

First off, great now you've got me worried. Secondly what's "Jean Doumanian's late 90's purge"?

Three pages back in this thread there was a discussion about the fundamental changes Woody's productions went through around the time of Celebrity, one of them being how his crew of regulars got broken up. This was due to then-producer Jean Doumanian 's cost cutting measures, which in fairness to her (if she deserves any at all), I suppose were necessary or at least inevitable with the eroding finances available for lower budget indie productions and the increased filmmaking costs for everything from music fees to 35mm print development and processing.

I think we need to keep this "worry" in perspective. Now that I've learned the casting director worked on Slumdog Millionaire it sounds less like a producer's decision, and more just savvy work by Gail Stevens. If anything seeing as how she's familiar with Woody's methods given she cast Scoop and Match Point, Pinto seems like a happy coincidence - a buzz worthy actress and hopefully someone Stevens feels can work comfortably and quickly with Allen. MediaPro I'm sure is thrilled, and like my guess above, probably ok-ed the salary and upped the budget, because now they have a whole new Asian market to work with and a potential larger younger market worldwide as well.

Oddly, Woody Allen says almost precisely the opposite in Scott Hicks' documentary about Philip Glass last year. There he claims that the reason he usually doesn't work with composers is that he feels so bad telling them what they've worked so hard on isn't working in the film, but that Philip Glass had no problem at all completely rewriting his cues several times and this made their collaboration much easier than previous experiences.

Digging out my copy of Conversations it appears my memory was focused on this part:


He does mention instances where Glass did do some re-writes and, as Woody always is, lavishes praise on him despite having some reservations about the whole thing (as indicated in the above quote, which addresses my criticism of the film's score and the fact that Woody should've spoken up about the music a bit more). He also says that even though he considers Glass a genius, he still prefers working with "the record collection".

Either way - the Glass score failed Woody in that film IMO.

Agreed - that figure could well be an error in reporting and/or Juliet might still be involved and it just hasn't been confirmed by anyone yet... we don't know.

But there is evidence here for a cause for concern considering that Pinto states in the article that Woody's interest stemmed from the Oscars.

Let's relax, people. It's all speculation at this point.

I really think it's laughable to consider Woody has given up almost 40 years of uncompromised filmmaking and decided to accept some intrusion from MediaPro. I would believe this if he had only flops in the last decade and was forced to accept suggestions from studio executives. But he has Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, both huge hits at the box office and an Oscar just last month.

Why would he give up his freedom at this point of his career? It's just ridiculous. If they made a deal with Mediapro I'm sure Letty was very careful to make this clear: Woody is the decision maker. They're just bankers.

And the 3 million report on Pinto's paycheck is also a fabrication from the gossip magazines that are currently crazy on her. They are now saying she is the next Bond girl.

Since the 90's, he has had the occasional breakdown of complete freedom - supposedly the Dreamworks deal stipulated he could only make comedies in colour, for instance. So it is not inconceivable that, at this point in his career, he was unable to get a $20m+ budget without making at least one concession.

It is speculation, and I suppose it will be sometime before this is confirmed or denied, but Pinto herself did note that the Woody offer came immediately following the Oscars, so that is the reason she is in Woody's film, which, as stated above several times, is indeed unusual.

Totally agree. This discussion - and one similar to it at imdb - is a load of longwinded nonsense.

Perhaps you'd like to proclaim your authority on the subject here again by stating something to be true simply because you said it?

The New Yorker has a new short story by Allen.