Woody Allen to make next film in France

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

Woody Allen. AFP Photo

Woody Allen is to make his next movie in the south of France, starring Britain's Oscar-winning Colin Firth and US actress Emma Stone, the project's producers announced Tuesday.
 
The as-yet-untitled film, to be shot this summer, will be the second set in France by the 77-year-old cult director, who scored his biggest commercial hit ever with 2011's "Midnight in Paris." Allen has made a series of Europe-based movies in recent years -- "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" in 2008 and 2012's "To Rome with Love" -- and has hired a number of collaborators from those movies for the new film.
 
Cinematographer Darius Khondji, production designer Anne Seibel and costume designer Sonia Grande all worked on "Midnight in Paris" and "To Rome with Love," while Grande also worked on "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." The new Gravier Productions film is produced by Allen's longtime associates, Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, who have worked with Allen for a decade and a half, they said in a statement.
 
After early classics like "Annie Hall" (1977), 1979's "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" in 1986, Allen fans had become used to mild disappointment with his annual output, until the last five or ten years.
 
"To Rome With Love" made $68 million at the global box office, a decent sum for an Allen film, but way behind the $155 million earned by "Midnight in Paris." Allen's latest film "Blue Jasmine," a drama co-starring Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins and Alec Baldwin, will be released in the United States in July, and in several European countries in August and September.