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Woody Allen Explains Why He Now Says He Regrets Having Made a Deal With Amazon’s Instant Video Streaming Service

May 20, 2015  •  Post A Comment

In a detailed and lengthy interview (close to 7,000 words) with Deadline’s veteran film reporter Mike Fleming Jr. – who is officially Deadline’s co-editor-in-chief, film – Woody Allen says of a deal he recently made with Amazon’s Instant Video streaming service, “…I have regretted every second since I said OK.”

Fleming asked Allen, “How do you reconcile your avoidance of computers and iPads when you signed on to create a TV series for Amazon’s streaming service?”

Allen, 79, replied, “I don’t even know what a streaming service is; that’s the interesting thing. When you said streaming service, it was the first time I’ve heard that term connected with the Amazon thing. I never knew what Amazon was. I’ve never seen any of those series, even on cable. I’ve never seen ‘The Sopranos,’ or ‘Mad Men.’ I’m out every night and when I come home, I watch the end of the baseball or basketball game, and there’s Charlie Rose and I go to sleep. Amazon kept coming to me and saying, please do this, whatever you want. I kept saying I have no ideas for it, that I never watch television. I don’t know the first thing about it. Well, this went on for a year and a half, and they kept making a better deal and a better deal. Finally they said look, we’ll do anything that you want, just give us six half hours. They can be black and white, they can take place in Paris, in New York and California, they can be about a family, they can be comedy, you can be in them, they can be tragic. We don’t have to know anything, just come in with six half hours. And they offered a lot of money and everybody around me was pressuring me, go ahead and do it, what do you have to lose?”

Allen then added, “And I have regretted every second since I said OK. It’s been so hard for me. I had the cocky confidence, well, I’ll do it like I do a movie…it’ll be a movie in six parts. Turns out, it’s not. For me, it has been very, very difficult. I’ve been struggling and struggling and struggling. I only hope that when I finally do it — I have until the end of 2016 — they’re not crushed with disappointment because they’re nice people and I don’t want to disappoint them. I am doing my best. I fit it in between films, so it’s not like, no film this year, I’m doing Amazon. It’s a job within my usual schedule….”

If you are interested in all things Allen, we urge you to click here to read Fleming’s extensive exclusive interview.

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