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.

Woody Allen doesn't like American Apparel.

The American Apparel case is going to trail. Allen accuses the company of using a "scorched earth" policy in their (weak) defence of using his image without permission.

Certainly this company believed Allen's image had some value for promotion or they wouldn't have used it on a billboard.

Exactly. Add on top of that the fact that Woody has made around $250million off his films alone in the past 4 years, easily the most financially successful he's ever been in his entire career, and you have to wonder what kind of incompetent lawyer firm AA has representing them that would base their defence on such absurdly stupid ideas. Not only is it no defence for using his image without permission, it also sabotages themselves and disregards the facts of what has been going on with Woody's career of late. Not to mention the whole thing being completely tactless.

American Apparel knows exactly what they're doing and they're letting this go to trial for the free publicity they'll get. Like using porn stars for their ads, or selling gay porn mags in their stores, it gets headlines and gives them free word of mouth.

Oh no doubt - but that still doesn't make losing $10million+ in the middle of a recession a good idea. Somehow I doubt whatever notoriety they gain out of this probably isn't going to worth spending over $10m on right now.

Obviously the lawsuit is not about what Allen's endorsement should be worth.
What a loathsome company, using quasi-blackmail tactics and yet maintaining its purity and blamelessness by asserting that Allen already ruined his own reputation.

Allen's lawyers are working to stop Mia Farrow and Larry Flynt from testifying.

I understand their motives to Farrow, but what relationship did Allen have with Flynt? Or do they just want to talk to him about cartoons he might have ran making fun of Allen?

Woody's opera staging is going to Spoleto, Italy.

That's a surprising figure. How has he made $250 million off his films in the past 4 years? Which films of his have been that popular? MATCH POINT may have made some money, but how much actually made it to Woody's pocket.

I'm sure the Weinstein's give him a pretty good expense account...

Perhaps the figure refers to money made from ALL his films during four years, not the films FROM the last four years? I could see him still receiving due royalties for DVDs, TV broadcasts, etc.

Just speculatin'…

Dov Charney speaks and now says they won't be calling Mia Farrow or Soon-Yi to the stand and makes a fairly idiotic defense of using Allen's image without his permission.

That is approximately how much his films made at the worldwide box office alone in the past four years, yes. Match Point did $90m, Scoop $40m, Cassandra's Dream $25m and VCB did over $90m (and still rising). This doesn't include any kind of estimate on DVD sales of new and older titles, how much he makes touring Europe with his band in December and January and his real estate investments.

He's probably not worth $250m but the fact that AA's claim that his value is decreased couldn't have come at a worse time with Woody's financial pull at, arguably, the highest it has ever been.