Ewan McGregor and Christina Ricci were quickly signed up to the project. For the celebrated British producer, Stephen Woolley, it promised to be the high point of an illustrious career.Stars were queueing up for parts. It was to have been the blockbuster film that finally demonstrated how Europe could finance and produce a big-budget epic on the same terms as Hollywood.
The subject was a promising one: the loves, lives and often gruesome deaths surrounding the notorious Borgia family of Renaissance Italy.Its director was Neil Jordan, who boasts a fine track record, having made films such as Mona Lisa, The Crying Game and The End of the Affair. She also testified that she had given herself a $250,000 rise without consulting Allen.Asked after the settlement whether the agreement would mend her differences with Allen, she simply shrugged..

Their collaboration included Bullets Over Broadway, Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I Love You, Deconstructing Harry, Wild Man Blues, Celebrity, Sweet and Lowdown and Small Time Crooks.Doumanian had told the court she was “not sure” whether Deconstructing Harry made a profit, though documents indicated it cleared $5.4m. Allen said six of the eight films he made with Sweetland were profitable. Details of were not disclosed.Allen, 66, had claimed Doumanian and her companion, Jacqui Safra, cheated him out of at least $12m (£8m) in profits on movies produced by Doumanian’s Sweetland Films.Doumanian and Safra said Allen received a total of $19.5m from Sweetland and in fact owed them money. “The parties have reached a business resolution of the dispute,” Mr Zweig said.

Woody Allen’s real-life courtroom drama ended abruptly yesterday when the film maker settled his multimillion-dollar lawsuit against his old friend and producer Jean Doumanian.
Allen’s lawyer, Michael Zweig, had called eight witnesses, including Allen and Doumanian, during the nine-day jury trial before the two sides reached an agreement. It’s a glimpse into the future that most of us would rather not see.. If tonight’s gig were an edition of Stars in Their Eyes, Beyonc?ouldn’t have done a better impression of Mariah with her song “Dangerously in Love”. With Whitney and Mariah indisposed, there’s a gap in the market for a some honest-to-goodness, lung-busting, platinum-selling soul divas. When the three don evening gowns and each sing a gloopy ballad from their forthcoming solo albums, everything falls into place.