Woody Allen Announces His Retirement From Filmmaking

UPDATE: After reports of his retirement went public, Woody Allen‘s spokesman released this statement: “Woody Allen never said he was retiring, not 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.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Woody Allen recently announced that he’s done with filmmaking. While spending some time in Europe directing his most recent film, he spoke with a Spanish newspaper called La Vanguardia. According to his interview there, he’s planning on getting out of the movie industry to pursue writing more seriously. Allen has published a number of memoirs, as well as some collections of comedic musings.

Allen’s past is complicated, to say the least. He rose to prominence as a writer and stand-up comedian, then became a huge star in the 1970s directing his own movies, like Bananas, Annie Hall, and Manhattan. He was a close creative and romantic partner of Mia Farrow from 1980 to 1996, who co-starred in many of his movies during that period. They ended their relationship, and Allen dated and later married Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s adopted daughter.

During Allen and Farrow’s breakup, he was first accused of sexually abusing his adopted daughter Dylan. Allen denied the accusations, and was never charged with a crime. Although the accusations garnered enormous publicity in the 1990s, Allen was able to continue his career with very little interruption all through the decade and into the 2000s. But in the mid-2010s, Dylan renewed her accusations against him. This time. the American film business largely cut ties with Allen; back in 2018, Allen’s film A Rainy Day In New York was set to debut through Amazon Studios, but they pulled it when concern about his past scandals boiled over. In 2020, his memoir, Apropos of Nothing, was canceled by Hachette, although it was later acquired and released by another publisher.

His next film, Wasp 22, is said to be his last. He likens it to his film Match Point, and that it would be “dramatic, serious, and also very sinister.”