Woody Allen has revealed that he will be retiring from filmmaking.
The 86-year-old made the announcement during an interview with a Spanish newspaper, saying that his film, "Wasp 22," which begins production in the coming fall, will be his last.
"My idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing," Allen told La Vanguardia, explaining that his next project will likely be a novel.
Allen has previously spoken about stepping back from the movie business, telling Alec Baldwin during a conversation live-streamed on Instagram in June that he plans to direct "one or two more" films, but added that the "thrill is gone" from directing.
"When I used to do a film, it'd go into a movie house all across the country," he said according to Vulture. "Now you do a movie and you get a couple weeks in a movie house."
Allen has received 16 Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay and has won four Academy Awards, including one for Best Director for "Annie Hall" (1977) in his decades-long career, Deadline noted.
Despite this, he has been blacklisted in recent years due to allegations made by his former partner Mia Farrow that he had molested their daughter Dylan.
Allen has consistently denied the allegations, but his name was further tarnished by his controversial marriage to Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi. Allen said he and Farrow's relationship had already deteriorated when he began having the affair with Soon-Yi in 1991 but this did not stop the backlash.
Allan's most recent film, "Rifkin's Festival," grossed just $2.3 million after Amazon Studios pulled its $80 million distribution deal with him in 2019, prompting MPI Media Group to step in and release the film in a limited capacity in the U.S.
Further, Allen's memoir was dropped by its publisher after widespread criticism in 2020. It was later picked up by Arcade Publishing but critics slammed the memoir as "tone-deaf" and "disgusting."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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