Few directors in Hollywood are quite like Woody Allen, although in recent years his personal life has overshadowed his fame and the surrounding controversy has cost him much of the goodwill built up over his career as a director. After months in which he signaled his intention to step back and devote himself to his other passion, the famous New York director has finally made his retirement official.
According to La Vanguardia, Woody Allen will say goodbye with one last film before devoting himself entirely to what has held his attention for many years: writing. "My plan, at this point, is to stop making films and concentrate on writing," said the director. "Zero Gravity" will be his next work, a collection of stories that goes on sale on September 27th.
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But before his retirement, "Wasp 22" will be Woody Allen's last film, after which he will devote himself entirely to writing novels. This is his 50th feature film, which will begin shooting in the coming months, entirely in French, over a period of two weeks, and will be set in Paris. In Allen's own words, his next film will be very similar to "Match Point":
"Exciting, dramatic, and also very sinister."
Since 1992, Woody Allen has faced allegations of abuse by Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter with Mia Farrow. In recent years the cases have become untenable, and the acclaimed director has gradually withdrawn from major public events. He began shooting his films in Europe and opened the San Sebastian Film Festival.
After what will be his last film, Woody Allen spoke about his first novel: "If I had a very serious idea, I would not hesitate to do the same thing I did in some of my films, the kind I call a series." He also said that one of the main reasons he is retiring is that "the world of cinema has changed; human stories are no longer as interesting."
Finally, he compared writing a film script to writing a novel: "It's an obsessive work. You spend long periods of time thinking about a single word or phrase, for several hours, trying to figure out how to make a sentence work. The really good writers I know spend a day or two refining a single sentence."
Director of film classics such as "Manhattan," "Annie Hall," and "Midnight in Paris," among many others, Woody Allen is 86 years old and the shooting of his next film is expected to last only two weeks; it will be released in early 2023. Then, in the coming months, he is expected to reveal more details about his final film before moving on to literature.
