Is it true that Woody Allen is the only director who has complete control of his films?
It’s doubtful that Allen (or any other director) has complete control of a film considering the substantial changes in the industry since Allen’s heyday. While he is still (and will likely always be) a widely respected director, the process of financing and releasing films is an exponentially more difficult process now as box office grosses on the whole have plummeted for a variety of reasons. Even directors who are more frequent box office bankables (a la Spielberg) have found themselves getting qualified “no’s” from the studios. It’s not about art it’s about finance, and while a director may be able to finance a feature film out of pocket, distribution is a dance with the devil that few auteurs win. (Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of The Christ” is one of the few examples of the self distribution win.) It’s tough out there and sadly there are no signs of it getting any easier any time soon.
