‘Woody Allen Never Said He Was Retiring,’ Rep Clarifies

After Woody Allen seemed to announce his retirement plans in Spanish newspaper over the weekend, a representative for the 86-year-old director said that absolutely wasn’t the case.

“Woody Allen never said he was retiring, nor did he say he was writing another novel. He said he was thinking about not making films as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him, as he is a great lover of the cinema experience. Currently, he has no intention of retiring and is very excited to be in Paris shooting his new movie, which will be the 50th,” the rep said in a statement to MovieMaker and other outlets.

The confusion began when Allen was quoted in the Spanish newspaper El Periodico saying “”Mi idea, en principio, es no hacer más cine y centrarme en escribir,” which, roughly translated, means, “My idea, in principle, is not to make cinema and focus on writing.” He was also reportedly planning to shift his attention to a novel after shooting his next film.

Fans of Allen were disappointed but not especially surprised, given his advancing age. Allen previously addressed his filmmaking future in a June talk with his friend Alec Baldwin.

Allen’s critics, meanwhile, took it as another opportunity to dunk on a filmmaker whose reputation took a major hit with the resurgence of accusations by his daughter, Dylan Farrow, that he sexually assaulted her when she was a child. Allen was investigated in the early 1990s but never charged with any wrongdoing, and has consistently argued that his ex, Mia Farrow, coached Dylan Farrow to concoct the accusations because of her fury at Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s daughter with Andre Previn. Allen and Soon-Yi Previn have been married since 1997.

A mocking headline for The Onion‘s AV Club, later changed, read: “Unfortunately, Woody Allen will release another movie before he retires.”

Allen’s last foray into writing books didn’t go as planned: Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, dropped plans to publish his memoir, Apropos of Nothing, after social media outrage and protests within the company. Allen eventually published the book with the small independent Arcade Publishing.