WOODY: IT’S CHEAPER TO FILM OVERSEAS

Woody Allen made the case for “run away production” at a news conference in Madrid Tuesday. He told reporters that he has made nearly all of his movies abroad in recent years because he could no longer afford to make them in New York. Moreover, he said, European actors and film crews have a creative spirit that Americans have lost. Promoting his latest film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, which opens in Spain this week — it received mixed reviews at the Cannes Film Festival in May — Allen said that he was able to attract such stars as Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, and Antonio Banderas for very little money because they were eager to work with him. Meanwhile DeadlineHollywood.com today (Wednesday) quoted an unnamed production veteran who has worked with Allen in New York as saying, “I don’t think Woody’s trying to give the city a face slap. This is more than ever a bottom-line business. If the 30 shooting days his budget gives him in New York buys him 42 days in Spain, who can blame him for taking it?”