Mike Fleming

BREAKING: This hardly qualifies as a cliffhanger, but Sony Pictures Classics has formalized a deal for North American rights to Blue Jasmine, the next film written and directed by Woody Allen. SPC partners Michael Barker and Tom Bernard make this their sixth picture and fourth in a row with The Woodman. That includes From Rome With Love and Midnight In Paris, the latest in Allen’s picture postcard tour of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Blue Jasmine, for which Allen returned to his old Gotham haunt to shoot, stars Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard and Michael Stuhlbarg. It is the story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife. The film is produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum and Edward Walson, and the deal was made by Gravier Productions.

Barker and Bernard could once again find themselves in the Oscar mix when nominations are announced Thursday. While Allen’s From Rome With Love is a silly comedy that has not been in the conversation, the Michael Haneke-directed Amour certainly has built momentum and Marion Cotillard figures to be in the mix for Rust And Bone. They’ve also got Searching For Sugar Man and The Gatekeepers on the documentary shortlist.