Lensing on Woody Allen‘s Rome-set film, “Bop Decameron,” is still in progress but it looks like the prolific director already has his sights set on the setting of his next film. Continuing his European adventures, Allen is reportedly eyeing a teaming with Bavaria Studios which would see him visit Munich, Germany next summer for his next, currently-untitled and as-always mysterious film. The budget would run at around $25 million.
The stop off in Munich will follow Allen’s recent ventures in Barcelona (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona“), London (“You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger,” “Match Point,” “Cassandra’s Dream,” “Scoop“) and Paris (“Midnight In Paris“) which was all catalysed by his inability to shoot his scripts in the United States due to ballooning costs. 2005’s “Match Point” was, in fact, originally set in New York and the Hamptons with Allen forced to anglicize it and shoot in London. It’s certainly paying off, though, with “Midnight In Paris” now Allen’s biggest box office success of his career that is even drawing Oscar talk from certain corners.
Allen has no problem attracting stars for these projects either with his latest congregating strong talents from around the globe: Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Greta Gerwig and Alison Pill all star with Italian thesps Robert Begnini, Antonio Albanese, Fabio Armiliata, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ornella Muti, Flavio Parenti and Alessandro Tiberi also on board for the story loosely based on the Decameron — a collection of over 100 14th century novellas by Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio — which will involve four unconnected vignettes, two of which involve American characters in the city, the other two involving Italian cast members. The latter two segments will likely be in Italian as well.
We’re expecting nothing less from Allen’s next with the Bavarian capital sure to rival its European counterparts as the extra character in the director’s recent run abroad. We’re sure he’s doing wonders for tourism as well. [THR]
Nice Google Maps banner hahaha. Good stuff.
Random thought on Woody Allen: I think the whole practice of a studio/distributor jumping on a filmmaker whose most recent picture was a hit might not apply to him. He\’ll probably always find financing, but even though MIP was his biggest earner of all time (unadjusted), I don\’t think studios like Universal or WB will start banging down his door, begging him to come back to America for good.
I think the performance of his movies will always be a complete crapshoot. It\’s hard to predict if it\’ll do his average $4-5 million, be a bomb like Cassandra\’s Dream, or a relative smash like MIP or Match Point.
Any way, I just hope he keeps churning them out. Good or bad, Woody Allen movies are the closest the film medium comes to having a TV show that\’s been on the air, season after season, for 35 years.