Woody Allen regrets agreeing to do an Amazon Studios series

Back in January, everyone was stunned to hear that Woody Allen actually agreed to write a full season of a TV series for Amazon Studios. Now it turns out that Allen regrets ever signing on for it.

In an extensive interview with Deadline at Cannes, Allen said that he never watches television, so he didn’t really have an idea on what to write. Still, Amazon - which he apparently never heard of before they contacted him - wanted him to do anything, even if it was just six half-hour episodes. After a year and a half of back-and-forth, Allen finally said yes.

“And I have regretted every second since I said OK. It’s been so hard for me,” Allen said. “I had the cocky confidence, well, I’ll do it like I do a movie…it’ll be a movie in six parts. Turns out, it’s not. For me, it has been very, very difficult. I’ve been struggling and struggling and struggling.”

It does sound shocking to hear that something would come hard for Allen, but when you realize that the 79-year-old has never written a TV show like this before, it makes sense. He has no model to work from and is used to being able to tell a full story in 100 minutes.

Allen said that he has until the end of 2016 to get it done and is confident that he can do it between movies. (He does already have a 2016 movie lined up.)

TheWrap reports that Allen also joked about his blunder during the Irrational Man press conference.

“It was a catastrophic mistake for me. I’m doing my best with it, but I should never have gotten into it,” he said.

When the project was announced in January, Amazon had nothing to say except that it would exist and that they gave it a full-season order. There is no plot, cast or anything else known about it... and clearly Allen himself doesn’t know too much about it either.

Allen’s Irrational Man screened out of competition at Cannes today. It hits U.S. theaters on July 24 and stars Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix.

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