Woody Allen talks with EW.com

There’s at least one thing no one could ever accuse Woody Allen of being: unproductive. ”The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” a screwball comedy about an unconventional jewel heist starring Allen, Helen Hunt, and Charlize Theron is the 65-year-old director’s 42nd feature film in 31 years. Moreover, the four-time Academy Award winner just wrapped another send-up titled ”Hollywood Ending.” How does he do it? The notoriously curmudgeonly New Yorker tells EW.com where he gets his ideas, how he chooses his stars, and why there’s a shortage of good movies in Tinseltown.

”Curse” is one of several comedies you’ve made in the last few years. What was your inspiration?
I’ve always loved these 1940s movies, like those made by Billy Wilder, with these fast-talking men and women. You know they’ll get together in the end, but you never know how because they hate each other throughout the whole movie. A couple of years ago I was sifting through the drawer and I saw that I had accumulated a number of ideas about this and decided to do them.

When you talk about having an idea for ”Curse” ”in the drawer,” does that mean a whole script, an outline, or a treatment?
It’s just a line. It’ll say like, ”Hypnotized is the detective and also is the criminal.” Once I have the idea, I never write a treatment or an outline or anything. It’s easier for me to just write the whole thing rather than plan it out too much. Once I commit to writing the script, then I do it.

You write and direct a film almost every year. Do you ever look back on your work and wish you’d given it more time?
No, a movie a year sounds like a big deal but it’s not. If I’ve got a script, I’ve already got, theoretically, an actor and director — me — and I’m funded. It gives me an advantage over other directors. When I pull something out of the drawer, I call up my people and say, ”Let’s go,” and we go. Whereas when another director pulls something out of the drawer, he’s got to call Warren Beatty and have [many meetings]. It can take them two years to get it done. It seems like they’re doing a lot of work but they lose their time in the money-raising.