Scoop (Woody Allen) - 2006

Death has always been one of Woody's favorite subjects.  In many of his movies, he has taken a humorous look at the man in black with scythe who collects the dead.  Ian McShane is the veteran journalist who finds himself on the death boat after a coronary thrombosis.  McShane learns about a serial killer from another passenger and decides to jump ship and tell his story to Scarlett Johansson and the magician, Splendini (Woody).  Scarlett and Woody then go after Hugh Jackman, the wealthy, English suspect.  In his second consecutive English production, Woody takes advantage of filming locations around London.  The English countryside is the star of this show.  [JAM 3/5/2011]

["... I found myself with four weeks to go and no script.  I had to do what I did when I was a television writer; I had to go into a room and sit down and come up with a script.  There was no fooling around, no self-indulgence; I couldn't walk the streets and wait for inspiration and ponder.  I had to get to the typewriter, soon.  And I did." Conversations With Woody Allen - April 2005]

["When I wrote Scoop I put myself in it because I felt, I haven't been in a film in a while.  I should do it.  But I really dislike the experience of having to make sure if I'm in it that there is a Woody Allen character.  So I vowed that I wouldn't do that ... Maybe never again.  It limits me when I'm conceiving a project to have to think that there needs to be a Woody Allen character, because that immediately requires it to be a certain type of movie." Conversations With Woody Allen - February 2006]