CANCELLED

Jeff Bezos Helped Kill Woody Allen’s Amazon Movie Deal: Lawyer

The $73-million deal was cancelled after allegations resurfaced from Woody Allen's adoptive daughter, who accused him of sexually assaulting her.

Amazon's decision to cancel their four-movie deal with director Woody Allen went all the way up to Jeff Bezos, Allen's lawyer reportedly claimed in court Friday. According to the New York Daily News, attorney Julia Beskin said “rather senior Amazon executives” who were “all the way up the ladder” were “very much involved” in the decision to make the deal with Allen and to terminate it. Beskin reportedly said the director's legal team may “seek to depose Bezos” if the contract dispute is not settled through private mediation. The $73-million deal was reportedly cancelled in June 2018 after allegations resurfaced that Allen had sexually abused Dylan Farrow, his adoptive daughter, as a child. Beskin reportedly argued that Amazon was well aware of Farrow’s years-old allegations against Allen when the deal was made. An attorney for Amazon defended the company's decision to terminate the deal, claiming Allen's more recent remarks about the #MeToo movement—he warned of a “witch hunt”—made the deal unsustainable. Allen already completed one of the four movies in the deal, titled A Rainy Day in New York, and it now seeks a new distributor.

TIME’S UP

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