Showbiz411

Woody Allen‘s “Nero Fiddled” will be distributed by Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker and Tom Bernard. This is no surprise. The SPC guys have now done five films with Woody. “Midnight in Paris,” just coming to video, is his most successful in, like, forever. The extremely wonderful comedy is headed to Oscar nominations for Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay and possibly an actor nod or two (if Sony would ramp up a little on Corey Stoll). “Nero Fiddled” was shot in Rome, and stars Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. Since “Midnight in Paris” opened Cannes last season, my guess is that Venice will get “Nero Fiddled”-also since it’s Italian. SPC has done very well for Woody, but when he’s hot he’s hot. The old Miramax had a huge success with “Bullets Over Broadway.” The Weinstein Company did gangbusters with “Vicki Cristina Barcelona.” Woody seems to have hit now with every other film. After “Match Point” was so great, “Scoop” kind of went nowhere. After “VCB” came “Whatever Works” and “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.” But SPC is loyal–look how they stuck with Pedro Almodovar through “The Skin I’m In.” That’s loyalty! So now Nero fiddles, Venice is lucky, and maybe so are we. In the meantime, “Midnight in Paris” just gets better and better with age  on DVD.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.