Woody Allen

Discussion and info on people in film, ranging from directors to actors to cinematographers to writers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#326 Post by Antoine Doinel » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:40 pm

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

User avatar
Kirkinson
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:34 am
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Woody Allen

#327 Post by Kirkinson » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:57 pm

AWA wrote: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.
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.

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#328 Post by AWA » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:44 pm

Kirkinson wrote:
AWA wrote: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.
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:
Woody wrote:The funny thing is, his music is so riddled with apprehension. I'd say, "This is a casual scene. The music seems to apprehensive." And he'd say, "Oh, no, that's the romantic stuff. The apprehensive stuff I'm saving for the murder." I was thinking, My God, what is going to happen?
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.

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#329 Post by AWA » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:46 pm

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

MHerzog
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:20 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#330 Post by MHerzog » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:53 pm

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.

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#331 Post by AWA » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:41 pm

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.

Fielding
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:19 am

Re: Woody Allen

#332 Post by Fielding » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:49 pm

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

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#333 Post by AWA » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:52 pm

Fielding wrote:
MHerzog wrote: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.
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?

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#334 Post by Antoine Doinel » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:05 pm

The New Yorker has a new short story by Allen.

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#335 Post by Antoine Doinel » Wed Apr 08, 2009 8:30 pm

Woody Allen doesn't like American Apparel.

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#336 Post by Antoine Doinel » Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:19 am

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.

HarryLong
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:39 pm
Location: Lebanon, PA

Re: Woody Allen

#337 Post by HarryLong » Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:17 am

"Certainly, our belief is that after the various sex scandals that Woody Allen has been associated with, corporate America's desire to have Woody Allen endorse their product is not what he may believe it is."
Certainly this company believed Allen's image had some value for promotion or they wouldn't have used it on a billboard.

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#338 Post by AWA » Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:23 am

HarryLong wrote:
"Certainly, our belief is that after the various sex scandals that Woody Allen has been associated with, corporate America's desire to have Woody Allen endorse their product is not what he may believe it is."
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.

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#339 Post by Antoine Doinel » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:04 am

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.

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#340 Post by AWA » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:51 pm

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.

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#341 Post by Gregory » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:52 pm

Slotnick said it was not a cheap shot to bring up Allen's sex life in a lawsuit over the billboard and Internet ads. "It's certainly relevant in assessing the value of an endorsement," he said, noting that Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps lost endorsement power after a photograph surfaced of him using marijuana.
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.

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#342 Post by Antoine Doinel » Tue May 05, 2009 11:04 am

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

User avatar
nsps
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 4:25 am
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#343 Post by nsps » Wed May 06, 2009 12:41 am

Antoine Doinel wrote: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?

User avatar
Fiery Angel
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 1:59 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#344 Post by Fiery Angel » Sat May 09, 2009 3:39 pm

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

Vic Pardo
Joined: Fri May 01, 2009 6:24 am

Re: Woody Allen

#345 Post by Vic Pardo » Sat May 09, 2009 8:33 pm

AWA wrote:Add on top of that the fact that Woody has made around $250million off his films alone in the past 4 years
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.

User avatar
The Elegant Dandy Fop
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:25 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Woody Allen

#346 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Sun May 10, 2009 4:08 pm

Vic Pardo wrote:
AWA wrote:Add on top of that the fact that Woody has made around $250million off his films alone in the past 4 years
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...

User avatar
nsps
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 4:25 am
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#347 Post by nsps » Sun May 10, 2009 5:28 pm

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'…

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#348 Post by Antoine Doinel » Sun May 10, 2009 7:22 pm

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.

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#349 Post by AWA » Tue May 12, 2009 6:06 pm

nsps wrote: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.
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.

User avatar
AWA
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:32 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Woody Allen

#350 Post by AWA » Thu May 14, 2009 6:47 pm

Talk (and serious interest) about getting Woody to do a "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" in Brazil:
VARIETY wrote: Conspiracao has expressed interest in co-producing a future Woody Allen film that would feature Rio as a setting, much as the filmmaker used Barcelona in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." According to Sa Leitao, RioFilme is also negotiating a potential investment in the project.

Post Reply