Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York may never get a release in the United States, even though it has made over $15 million in Europe. But in an unexpected twist, fans of the 84-year-old writer-director can get a chance to see the new movie above the United States.
The film, which stars Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Liev Schreiber, Jude Law, Cherry Jones, Rebecca Hall, Suki Waterhouse and Diego Luna, is without distribution in any English language market, but recently turned up as an American Airlines’ in-flight entertainment option. One recent viewer confirmed that it is not only on international flights to countries where one can catch it in theaters, but on domestic flights as well.
The title does not appear on a search of available movies on websites for Delta, Virgin America, Southwest or Jet Blue. United makes you wait until you get on the plane to see what’s playing.
Amazon was set to distribute the film, in which a tweed-wearing, wealthy and adrift college student named Gatsby Welles (Chalamet) accompanies his bank heiress girlfriend Ashleigh Enright (Fanning) on a trip to Manhattan to interview a director (Schreiber) for the college paper. The pair break for the day and have a series of lighthearted and elegantly photographed encounters with other members of the absurdly privileged class. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro‘s images and Allen’s dialogue (in which 20-year-olds quote Cole Porter) combine to create a make believe New York that either inspires eye rolls or swoon-y sighs depending on your point of view.
Amazon did an about-face with Allen in the wake of #MeToo, arguing that a renewed awareness of sexual assault claims from Dylan Farrow, as well as bankable actors stating that they would refuse work from him, altered the terms of their investment. Allen sued for breach of contract and the two settled on an undisclosed sum. Allen has long denied the allegations made against him, which Connecticut prosecutors declined to prosecute in 1993.
Despite having no assurances will work will screen in theaters in his native country, Allen recently wrapped production on his 50th feature length film as a director, Rifkin’s Festival. The project, set at the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain, stars Gina Gershon, Christoph Waltz and Louis Garrel.