Amazon tries to rebut Woody Allen's claims

Attorneys for Amazon tried to rebut the charges made by Woody Allen in his $68 million lawsuit. Their argument is essentially that they made a bad deal and won't make any money.

According to Variety:

Amazon’s lawyers argue that Allen has become a “pariah” in the film industry. But the motion to dismiss, filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, seeks to throw out only four of Allen’s eight claims, leaving the heart of his complaint untouched. 

Amazon distributed Allen’s last two films, Cafe Society and Wonder Wheel, establishing the streamer as a significant player in the distribution world. In 2017, under the stewardship of Roy Price, Amazon agreed to a four-picture deal with Allen, under which the director was to receive minimum guarantees of at least $68 million, according to the suit. 

The first film under the agreement, A Rainy Day in New York, was completed in 2018. But by that point, the #MeToo movement was underway, leading to a reconsideration of allegations that Allen had raped [sic] his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, in 1992. The allegation has resurfaced periodically since then, but until last year it had little apparent effect on Allen’s career.

Next Allen should sue Variety for saying he was accused of "rape".

In its motion to dismiss, Amazon cites an interview Allen gave to Rolling Stone in October 2017, in which he said that the Weinstein scandal was “very sad for everybody involved.” 

“You also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself,” Allen continued. “That’s not right either.” 

Allen later clarified the remarks, saying that Weinstein was “a sad, sick man.” 

Amazon contends that those comments showed that Allen “failed to grasp the gravity of the issues or the implications for his own career.” Amazon argues that the comments had a cascading effect that made it impossible for the streamer to capitalize on the four-picture deal. 

“As a result, Amazon was justified in terminating its relationship with Allen, and Plaintiffs ultimately will not recover any of the relief they seek,” Amazon’s lawyers wrote. 

The filing does not claim that Allen’s remarks constituted a breach of their agreement. The motion asked the court only to dismiss four counts because they “are duplicative of their central breach claims or otherwise fail as a matter of law.”

Seems weak to me. Allen wasn't the first person to have comments about the #MeToo movement taken badly. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck both came under attack and they supported it completely.  Barbra Streisand just told the London Times that men won't hire women now because they're afraid of being "attacked".