Woody Allen Is Creating a TV Show for Amazon
by Andy Neuenschwander
After a long career in movies, writer and director Woody Allen is turning his eye to television.
Amazon has confirmed that Allen will be creating his first TV show ever for their Amazon Prime streaming service. When it releases, the show will be available for viewing in the United States, the U.K. and Germany.
The platform makes the project an even bigger leap for Allen: not only is he switching over from movies to TV, but he's also moving into the wild frontier of streaming video.
"Woody Allen is a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all-time, and it’s an honor to be working with him on his first television series," said Amazon Studios VP Roy Price in a statement. “From Annie Hall to Blue Jasmine, Woody has been at the creative forefront of American cinema and we couldn’t be more excited to premiere his first TV series exclusively on Prime Instant Video next year."
Details about the project aren't out yet, most likely because there don't seem to be any. There's no cast, no script, and apparently not even a premise. "I don’t know how I got into this," Allen said in Amazon's press release. "I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin. My guess is that Roy Price will regret this."
To hire Woody Allen, one of the most well-reviewed directors in cinema history, should seem like a no-brainer. But Amazon is still taking something of a risk in hiring Allen, who still faces allegations of child abuse put forth by his daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Those allegations have been around for years, but came to the surface again recently when Farrow wrote an article for the New York Times that detailed the abuse she claims she suffered from Allen when she was 7 years old.
However, the revival of that story in the public consciousness doesn't seem to have slowed Allen's career: "Midnight in Paris" was Allen's biggest box office performer yet, and "Blue Jasmine," released after Farrow's NYT letter, received a number of award nominations.