For now, Woody Allen‘s fifty-first film goes by WASP 2026 — an acronym for ‘Woody Allen Summer Project.’ It won’t keep that name: under the terms of its public financing, the finished film is contractually required to carry the word ‘Madrid‘ in its title, the same clause that turned San Sebastián and, before that, Barcelona into on-screen billboards for their own tourist boards.
Production, led by Wanda Visión, Gravier Productions and 3Six9 Studios, is now confirmed to begin on October 5 in the Community of Madrid, after slipping from an original spring start.
Allen will write and direct an ensemble romantic comedy conceived, in the words of the project’s own backers, to make the Spanish capital ‘one of the main characters in the story’ rather than a postcard backdrop.
The budget has crept upward as the project has firmed up, from early estimates near €10 million to a figure now cited at roughly €12 million.
Filming will take place entirely in Madrid, with at least 15% of scenes shot outdoors across the city’s streets and landmarks; post-production will then split between Madrid and New York.
What Madrid Is Paying for a Name on a Poster
The Community of Madrid and Madrid’s City Council are each putting in €1.5 million, a combined public contribution of roughly 15% of the budget — one of the most ambitious institutional bets on international cinema the region has made in years. The regional government’s grant, signed last October with Película WASP AIE, the joint venture behind the film, runs over 26 months.
City officials have been explicit that the money isn’t patronage: it’s promotion. Madrid’s council has framed the film as a tool to sell the capital abroad as a ‘tourist, cultural and creative’ destination.
The projected local payoff: around 1,196 direct jobs and 2,293 indirect ones, plus knock-on spending on accommodation, catering, transport and audiovisual services during the roughly six-month shoot. Estimates for lodging alone for cast and crew put the return to the region at over half a million euros.
The Long Way Back From New York
Madrid is the destination of a detour Allen has been on for years. His last American production was A Rainy Day in New York, released in 2019; during its post-production, three of its stars — Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Hall and Selena Gomez — announced they would donate their salaries to organizations supporting survivors of abuse, with Gomez reportedly giving away more than she was paid, as People reported at the time.
He hasn’t financed a film in the United States since. In a recent conversation with journalist Roger Friedman, Allen said he’d still like to shoot again in New York but is having ‘real trouble’ lining up the money, a difficulty tracing back to the resurfacing of decades-old allegations amid the #MeToo movement.
His most recent film, 2023’s Coup de Chance — his 50th — was shot entirely in French, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and became his best-reviewed work since 2013’s Blue Jasmine, holding an 84% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
A Fourth Spanish City Joins the List
Spain has been recurring ground for Woody Allen well before this project.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) shot mainly between Barcelona and Oviedo — where Allen is honored today with a bronze statue in the city center — and starred Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.
Rifkin’s Festival (2020) filmed in San Sebastián, using the city’s own film festival as its backdrop; it opened that year’s edition and featured Elena Anaya, Sergi López and Enrique Arce.
Madrid will be the fourth Spanish city to host an Allen production, and the first to land a full six-month shoot. What it won’t yet confirm is who’s in it: plot and casting remain officially undisclosed, though speculation keeps circling back to Cruz and Bardem, the pair most identified with Allen’s Spanish period, alongside open questions over whether the dialogue will be in English, Spanish, or some mix of both.
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