Thursday, March 28, 2024

Woody Allen Goes Digital and Uses “Green Screen” Technology for First Time

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Forget all this crap about Woody Allen that you see in today’s tabloids. He has an easily manipulated son. And a stupid French comic embarrassed him by accident. Woody’s over it.

He’s so over it that Woody came to lunch today with the American press at the beautiful Hotel Carlton’s Nikki Beach restaurant. He came with “Cafe Society” cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Cory Stoll, Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively. Woody, dressed like Woody, was a in very good mood and answered all questions.

But the most surprising revelation about Woody came from Jesse Eisenberg, who turns out to Allen’s best ever on screen surrogate. Jesse plays the romantic lead in “Cafe Society,” a young man who suffers from unrequited love in a triangle with Stewart and her older lover (played beautifully by Steve Carell).

Eisenberg, asked what it’s like to work with an 80 year old director, responded with all kinds of salutations about Woody’s high energy. But then he blurted out a good scoop: “He shot this in digital for the first time, and it’s the first time Woody ever had a green screen in a movie.”

A green screen is used for special effects. You act in front of a blue or green screen, and the shot is added later. In “Cafe Society,” Eisenberg and Stewart drive to the famed Hollywood sign. The sign was added in later.
“He looked at the [empty] screen and he said, where’s the picture?” Jesse chuckled. “It was very sweet.”

Woody told us his Amazon six part TV series with Miley Cyrus and Elaine May is all wrapped and ready to go this fall. “Cafe Society” is released on July 15th. And this week in New York, Allen starts work on his 47th feature, an untitled comedy set in a carnival type playland like Coney Island.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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