The 'Irrational Man' director admits he is struggling with his first TV show as saying, 'I expect this to be a cosmic embarrassment when it comes out.'
- May 16, 2015
AceShowbiz - Woody Allen feels the pressure of delivering a good show for his first foray into television. "It was a catastrophic mistake for me," he said at the Cannes Film Festival recently. "I'm doing my best with it. I'm struggling with it at home. I should never have gotten into this."
The director has signed a deal with Amazon to write and direct a half-hour TV series. "It's very hard for me. I thought it was going to be easy. Doing a movie is a big long thing, but to do six half hours I figured it would be a cinch," he said. "But it's not, it's very, very hard and I just hope I don't disappoint Amazon."
The filmmaker who came to the event to promote his latest movie "Irrational Man" continued, "I am struggling with it, I am not good at it, I don't watch any of those television series really, so I don't know what I'm doing. I'm floundering. I expect this to be a cosmic embarrassment when it comes out."
In an interview with Deadline, Allen recalled how he was approached by the streaming service. "Amazon kept coming to me and saying, please do this, whatever you want. I kept saying I have no ideas for it, that I never watch television. I don't know the first thing about it," he said.
"Well, this went on for a year and a half, and they kept making a better deal and a better deal. Finally they said look, we�ll do anything that you want, just give us six half hours. They can be black and white, they can take place in Paris, in New York and California, they can be about a family, they can be comedy, you can be in them, they can be tragic."
"And I have regretted every second since I said OK. It's been so hard for me. I had the cocky confidence, well, I'll do it like I do a movie ... it'll be a movie in six parts. Turns out, it's not," he added, "It's a tough thing and I'm earning every penny that they're giving me and I just hope that they don't feel, 'My God, we gave him a very substantial amount of money and freedom and this is what he gives us?' "
