Filmmaker Woody Allen is suing Amazon for at least US$68 million, saying that the company ended a four-picture movie deal last year after old accusations against him resurfaced in the press.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, says that Amazon knew about a “25-year-old” allegation before signing with Allen in 2017, but still used it as an excuse to back out of the deal.
“There simply was no legitimate ground for Amazon to renege on its promises,” the lawsuit says.
Allen’s daughter, Dylan Farrow, has said that Allen molested her in an attic in 1992 when she was 7 years old, which the filmmaker has repeatedly denied. The allegations were made public in 1992, and Farrow wrote about them in 2014, and then appeared in a TV interview early last year for the first time.
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The lawsuit, which doesn’t mention Farrow by name, says Amazon ended the deal with Allen in June 2018.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. The online retailer, based in Seattle, has been producing TV shows and movies in recent years to help boost its online video streaming service.
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According to the complaint, Allen finished a film called A Rainy Day in New York that Amazon never released, breaching its contract.
The more than $68 million Allen is seeking from Amazon includes additional payments for A Rainy Day in New York, plus payments for the three other unfinished films.
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