July 17, 2012 | 12:58 pm

The Woody Allen Israel Project: The Plot Thickens

Posted by Rob Eshman

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Woody Allen. Photo by Ilya Mauter/Wikipedia

A man falls for a woman.  All he wants is to get her attention. His friends even try to get her to notice him.  The woman is a little flattered, a little perturbed—who IS this guy? And why do his friends CARE so much?  And then,  one day, she…

That’s kind of where we are with the Woody Allen Israel Project.  The column that launched, or rather, revealed, the international interest in Woody Allen making one of his upcoming movies in Israel has now attracted the attention of President Shimon Peres and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who released details of a meeting they had with Allen in Manhattan in early July suggesting he come film in Israel.

Today a Haaretz story appeared entitled,  “To Jerusalem with love? Peres tries to lure Woody Allen to film in Israel, and sub headed, “Two weeks ago, The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles launched an Internet campaign to raise funds that would let Allen film in Israel.”

Now, reporter Nurit Anderman wrote,  “Israeli officials have met with Woody Allen to try to persuade the legendary director to give Europe a rest and shoot one of his next films in Israel.”  She goes on:

A Jerusalem municipality spokesman told Haaretz that several months ago, while on a fund-raising tour, Barkat met with Allen and Diane Keaton in a Manhattan restaurant. Barkat invited Allen to visit the capital and consider shooting a film there.

“Allen replied that he would seriously consider it,” the spokesman said. “Barkat plans to meet with Allen again during his next visit to the U.S.”

Tel Aviv made a similar offer, but Allen has not yet responded. “The Tel Aviv municipality is leading a move to position the city in the international arena,” Mayor Ron Huldai told Haaretz.

“Obviously, a film taking place in Tel Aviv would be a vehicle to promote the city abroad, and we have constant and close contacts with leading figures in Hollywood, with the government and with Israel’s cinema community, hoping that such a move will materialize.”

Allen’s representatives, as Haaretz pointed out, told The Jewish Journal, that although he has several films already in the works, shooting an upcoming one in Israel is “certainly a possibility.”

Meanwhile, fans of the idea are continuing to show their support on the jewcer.com crowd funding site, and several have presented the proposal to certain Jewish billionaires who don’t need a crowd to fund anything.

We can’t wait to see how this movie ends.