Woody Allen is shutting down claims from the weekend that he is retiring after his 50th film, “Wasp 22.” The news came out of an interview with the Oscar winner in Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia that he’d be stepping down from filmmaking after his final project, set to shoot in Paris.
Allen’s press representative issued a statement to IndieWire, saying, “Woody Allen never said he was retiring, nor did he say he was writing another novel. He said he was thinking about not making films, as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him, as he is a great lover of the cinema experience. Currently, he has no intention of retiring and is very excited to be in Paris shooting his new movie, which will be the 50th.”
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The interview claimed that Allen revealed his upcoming film, France-based thriller “Wasp 22,” would be his last. While the plot remains under wraps, Allen compared the feature to “Match Point” and described the film as “exciting, dramatic, and also very sinister.” Gina Gershon, Christoph Waltz, Louis Garrel, Wallace Shawn, and Spanish actors Elena Anaya and Sergi Lopez star in the film.
La Vanguardia noted that 86-year-old auteur Allen would focus on penning novels post-filmmaking, following up on his fifth collection of short stories, “Zero Gravity.” The director was said to be interested in writing a full-length novel in the future after his 2020 memoir “Apropos of Nothing.”
Allen was interviewed via Instagram Live earlier this year by frequent collaborator, actor Alec Baldwin. Allen said during the June 2022 video interview that he will “probably make at least one more movie” following “Wasp 22.”
“A lot of the thrill is gone,” the “Manhattan” director explained. “When I used to do a film it’d go into a movie house all across the country. Now you do a movie and you get a couple weeks in a movie house. Maybe six weeks or four weeks and then it goes right to streaming or pay-per-view. It’s not the same. It’s not as enjoyable to me.”
Allen continued at the time, “I don’t get the same fun doing a movie and putting it in a theater. It was a nice feeling to know that 500 people were seeing it once… I don’t know how I feel about making movies. I’m going to make another one and I’ll see how it feels.”
He added, “I feel that yes I will work again in film, but I might want to turn to writing.”
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