The visionary director (who leaves behind him a trail of sexual abuse allegations) is packing it in after a career that spans 50 films under his direction.
UPDATE: Woody Allen has backtracked on his comments, says he has "no intention of retiring". The original news story follows.
It's another end of an era today, with Woody Allen announcing that he will retire from filmmaking after his next project finishes up.
His upcoming 50th film, entitled 'Wasp 22', will be a French-language film that is currently filming in Paris, but at the age of 86, he's still not about to pack it in entirely.
Allen told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia that he intends to retire from directing but will shift his interest to another creative avenue - writing. He said: "My idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing."
Whether this is novel writing or script writing for future films remains to be seen, but pretty much every project he has boarded in his near 60--year profession has also been written by him.
The announcement from the four-time Oscar winner (two for 'Annie Hall', one for 'Hannah and Her Sisters' and another for 'Midnight in Paris') comes after a long string of allegations against the 86-year-old dating all the way back to 1992. Rosie O’Donnell famously brandished the filmmaker a "slimy bookworm lookin' child molestin' bastard"; while Cate Blanchett added during the time of the Dylan Farrow allegations: "I'm a big believer in the justice system and setting legal precedents. If the case needs to be reopened, I am absolutely, wholeheartedly in support of that."
HBO's 'Allen v Farrow' docuseries from 2021 closely followed the director's adopted daughter and his ex-wife Mia Farrow, showcasing the alleged inappropriate actions of the man. However, the docuseries was criticised for not showcasing Allen's side of the story and he wrote a rebuttal which reads, "These documentarians had no interest in the truth".
