Another year, another new Woody Allen film. While his latest, To Rome With Love hasn’t even made its way to theaters yet, we already have word that after years of shooting abroad (a creative cycle that began with 2005’s Match Point), the ubiquitous director is heading back stateside for his next project, which will primarily be shot in San Francisco (and “a tiny bit” in New York). The last time Allen shot in San Francisco was way back in 1972, for the film adaptation of his play Play It Again, Sam.
Why now? As Anne Thompson points out, the reason for the return is purely financial — with the success of Midnight in Paris, Allen can finally raise the funds necessary to shoot in the US again. Apparently filming on the untitled project isn’t slated to begin until 2013, which we’re betting has something to do with a packed dance card that includes an acting role in John Turturro’s Fading Gigolo and a planned musical adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway. That, or maybe the fact that he’s almost 80 years old is finally starting to catch up with him.
While we wait for new details to emerge, care to wager a guess about what Allen’s latest will be about? Given the locations and the fact that it’s Woody, we’re willing to wager that there’s a fish-out-of-water-New-Yorker-goes-West thing lurking somewhere in the script.