31/07/2013 - The American director has apparently been offered the funding “and I want it to become a story and a film that all locals can be proud of”

New York used to be an indispensible prop in US director Woody Allen’s films between the 1970s-1990s used to be located in New York – Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979); Broadway Danny Rose (1984), New York Stories (1989); Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), Bullets over Broadway (1994) – he has in recent years been touring the capitals of Europe.

After Spain, the UK, France and Italy - Vicky Cristina Barcelona [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2008), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (his fourth film in London – 2010), Midnight in Paris [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2011) and To Rome with Love [+see also:
trailer
interview: Woody Allen
film profile] (2012) – Sweden and Stockholm could be next, according to Swedish daily DN.

“We have been offered the money – it is just me who has not yet come up with a sensible idea, but I will surely work it out. I love Stockholm, I have been there several times in private. It is not just about money - I want to make a story and a film that all locals can be proud of, without it becomes a pure commercial,” explained Allen, who has also expressed his admiration for Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, “the greatest film artist since the invention of the camera”.

Head of marketing and communications Jonas Feinberg, of Swedish regional film centre Stockholm-Mälardalen, confirmed that the centre is involved in a Woody Allen project “which we hope will be realised as soon as possible,” but he would not go into details.

The financing necessary to stage an Allen production is allegedly app €14 million; the city of Barcelona was criticised for spending public money on the project, but the mayor claimed it was “a huge advertisement for the city which will be seen worldwide”. Allen’s next film, Blue Jasmine, a family drama starring Cate Blanchett, Peter Sarsgaard and Alec Baldwin, will open in the US on July 26.