Woody Allen fears foray into TV will be ‘cosmic embarrassment’

Amazon has secured deal for Allen to write and direct series of half-hour episodes

Director Woody Allen: says of his TV series  commission, “I’m doing my best with it. I’m struggling with it at home. I should never have gotten into this.” Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Director Woody Allen: says of his TV series commission, “I’m doing my best with it. I’m struggling with it at home. I should never have gotten into this.” Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Award-winning film-maker Woody Allen fears his first foray into directing for the small screen will be a disaster, saying he should never have signed up to make a television show for Amazon. com.

Amazon announced in January it had secured a deal for Allen to write and direct a series of half-hour episodes for its streaming television service.

“It is a catastrophic mistake,” Allen (79) told a news conference in Cannes, where he was presenting his latest movie, Irrational Man. “I’m doing my best with it. I’m struggling with it at home. I should never have gotten into this.

“I am struggling with it, I am not good at it, I don’t watch any of those television series really, so I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m floundering. I expect this to be a cosmic embarrassment when it comes out.”

Filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and Guillermo del Toro have all made recent forays into television.

Allen’s online series is due to come out next year.

– (Reuters)

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