Woody Allen's scrapped Amazon film to open Deauville Film Festival

Woody Allen's dumped Amazon movie A Rainy Day in New York has found a lifeline at the Deauville American Film Festival in France.

The movie was shelved by Amazon bosses amid comments Allen made about the #MeToo anti-harassment movement and disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, before they sunk their multi-project deal with the director.

But now the film, starring Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Hall, Selena Gomez, and Elle Fanning, has been picked up for the festival - as the opening night premiere on 6 September. It becomes Allen's eighth film to appear at Deauville.

Mars Films bosses have also snapped up distribution rights for A Rainy Day In New York, and will release the film in France on 18 September, with a number of other European territories lined up.

The film's stars, Hall and Chalamet, are among Woody's collaborators who have publicly distanced themselves from the director, following sexual abuse claims made by his estranged daughter, Dylan Farrow - allegations Allen has denied.

Chalamet gave his salary from the movie to organisations like the LGBT Center in New York and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), while Hall also donated her fee to charity, insisting she would never work with Allen again.

Farrow published an open letter in The New York Times in 2014, in which she claimed her adoptive father molested her in an attic when she was seven. Dylan, her mother Mia and brother Ronan Farrow, have attacked stars who have signed on for Woody's movies ever since.

The director continues to deny the claims.

A Rainy Day in New York, which also features Diego Luna and Liev Schreiber, was made on a $25 million (£20.5 million) budget as part of Allen's five-film deal with Amazon, which he signed in 2016.

He and the film bosses are currently locked in a legal spat over the cancellation of the deal.