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“Madrid is a very elegant and beautiful city and perfect for the kind of atmosphere that I wanted for the story,” said Allen who disclosed that his new film would have a diplomatic setting.

“It’s a comedy with a romance, with intrigue, with infidelity and all the ingredients that I always think it is going to make a great story. I think I have all the ingredients for a very good movie, but that remains to be seen. Now comes the hard part. I’ve got to make the movie and put it together, and it has to live up to my expectations. That doesn’t mean that it will, but I’ll do my best,” he said.

Slated to shoot from Oct. 5 in Madrid, the still-untitled project is being backed by millions in public funding on the condition that it showcases the Spanish capital on screen.

The Madrid City Council also announced in December that “at least 15% of the film’s scenes will be shot in exteriors, making the city easily recognizable, showing its cultural, architectural and historical facets.”

Provisionally titled “Woody Allen Fall Project 2026,” the film is produced by veteran Spanish production-distribution outfit Wanda Vision, Allen’s New York-based Gravier Productions and Puerto Rico-based 3SIX9 Studios. WestEnd Films has recently boarded as its world sales agent.

Wanda Vision’s Miguel Morales, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida and Madrid Community President Isabel Diaz Ayuso were also present at the press conference, signaling the importance of this project to the capital.

Morales, the first to speak, revealed that principal photography would take place in around 30 locations in Madrid and Aranjuez for six weeks.

His conversations with Allen began in Venice and Berlin about shooting in the Basque Country and the Canary Islands for their stronger tax incentives but it was Allen who said he really wanted to shoot in Madrid.

“We have a wonderful, predominantly Spanish technical crew, with master cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, Adam Baines as production designer, Sonia Grande as costume designer, Daniela Ford as first assistant director, Teddy Villalba as production manager, and more than 370 Spanish technicians who will participate at some point in the filming and post-production of the film, all of which will take place entirely in Madrid, with the exception of the editing,” he said.

Aside from Vives, he said that the film would include some 50 Spanish actors, including some immigrant background actors.

Addressing Allen, Mayor Martinez-Almeida said: “Thank you for wanting to make your film in the city of Madrid and also in such a wonderful city as Aranjuez, which we must not forget is a World Heritage Site.”

Said Ayuso: “We are especially pleased that the man who has transported the magic of the streets of New York and their peculiarities to the rest of the world will now do the same with this city and this region. He said in an interview that the light, atmosphere and streets of Madrid weighed more heavily than other benefits when choosing where and when to shoot his new film.”

Asked about his choice of music for his film, Allen said: “I’d like to use music that that is local and appropriate and relevant to Madrid, revealing that the very first time he came to Madrid was to play jazz.

Barcelona-born Vives is likely best known for his role in drama series set in the world of fashion, “Velvet” and his role as Angel in “The Cheetah Girls 2.”

Asked about his role, Vives could only say: “I play a diplomat and actually the main character is my wife in the movie. So obviously, as Mr. Allen has said, there’s a lot of ingredients to add into this small cocktail, and there’s not much more we can say.”

Wasser, whose credits include HBO Max’s hit show “Girls,“ and “A Ghost Story” by David Lowery, revealed that she had already given up on acting when the call from Allen’s casting agent came. “After fainting, I auditioned and when I got the part, I fainted again,” she laughed.

“I can’t stop staring at Mr. Woody Allen because I’m a super fan. You know, I love this man. This is my favorite filmmaker in the world. So, I feel like my preparation has been my entire life of being introduced to his films.”

Wasser and Vives join Marton Csokas (“The Lord of the Rings”), Jemima Kirke (“Girls”) and Jakob Oftebro (“Hamilton”).

Asked his opinion on the housing crisis and the protests in Madrid, Allen demurred. “I’ve never been political so I don’t have opinions on socio-political matters. I don’t have deeper insights than the average person.”

“When I was younger, I was a lot more conventional, dedicated and as I got older, I got lazier and used mostly long shots. So over the years, it evolved into a style of more long shots, which my actors were grateful for as it didn’t require repeating scenes for close-ups.“

Addressing a question on whether he was going to retire, given his advanced years, he said: “I chose not to retire although it is grueling to make films because it’s hard work. You make a movie and they put it on television so quickly. It used to be you make a movie, you put it in the cinema and it lasts in the cinema for a month or a year. And it had a different dynamic to its presentation. So I’m not as enthused about making a movie but the idea of making this story in Madrid, I couldn’t turn down. It was too exciting for me.”

McKinsey’s latest data shows 32% of organizations decided against off-the-shelf software and built their own using AI. This dynamic sent SaaS stocks plummeting earlier this year, but many have regained some ground (registration required) as reality sets in.

However, it can be technically hard, time-consuming and even more expensive long term to build software than to buy it from a specialized vendor. MIT Research last year found that “external partnerships with learning-capable, customized tools” reached deployment 67% of the time, compared to 33% for internally built tools.​

I recently came face to face with the buy-versus-build decision myself. We needed a data-labeling tool, and a team set out to build it internally. As soon as I found out, I killed the project. It didn’t make business sense to move the intellectual horsepower of our R&D off what brings our customers value, just to potentially save on tech spend.​

Pressure To Go With AI​

What worries me about the uptick in build decisions is that many leaders are still blindly trusting AI. My company, SmartBear, recently surveyed 1,436 technology professionals whose organizations use AI in development. The research found that 73% of tech leaders say they have a lot or complete confidence that AI-generated code behaves as intended, compared with 52% of practitioners. ​

It’s this overconfidence in AI that can lead companies to build when they should buy.​

The best leaders, however, will weigh all aspects of the build-versus-buy decision, including potential impact on application integrity, meaning whether software works as it is supposed to, and risk to mission-critical applications.​

I see a clear instance where internal, custom builds may make sense. If you’re paying a lot of money for a tool that isn’t tied to mission-critical work, and you only need a subset of the capabilities of the tool, it can be a candidate to build internally. ​

You will, however, need to have the technical skill to build it yourself in a way that’s maintainable and accurate. This is not easy, although AI may make it seem so. Very rarely will you ask Claude or Codex to do something and have it respond, “I cannot.” ​

Questions To Consider​

If the buy-versus-build calculation is not as clear-cut as those examples, here is my list of considerations to inform decision-making: ​

Is the application mission-critical?

If so, homegrown is way riskier. The cost of a homegrown tool, including an error that escapes into production, say on a manufacturing line or in a financial services security breach, is huge.

Mission-critical is in a class all its own when it comes to application integrity. On systems like these, a vendor that specializes in that use case is the safer bet. For non-mission-critical applications where the cost of error is low, that risk calculus flips: A well-tested homegrown build can be the sensible move.​​

Does the software require audit, compliance, other governance oversight or continuing support?

If so, the total cost of a homegrown build adds up. Even if the original build feels compelling and doable, O’Reilly analysis found that maintenance costs account for 60% of software ownership over its lifetime​. Automation and AI tools may reduce that, but it’ll remain a big chunk of spend.

Any application with strong governance and audit requirements will likely require long-term maintenance. Needs can change often, even daily, and teams need to be on top of them or risk missing important requirements. A vendor that lives and breathes those requirements can often absorb that churn more efficiently than a team maintaining it as a side project. ​

What is my budget, and is it wisely allocated?

Given excitement over AI, there can be a commitment to spend on AI. That may make it easier to use AI to build software than to secure funding to buy software.

Don’t let this dynamic drive a short-term decision that impacts budgets and operations for years. The key is weighing the full lifetime cost of a build against the cost of buying, not just the upfront price tag.​

How good is the AI at building what you want?

If it operates at the edge of its capabilities, that’s a big downside. Harnesses like Claude Code and Cursor are great at exploiting large language model (LLM) capabilities for a specific task, like coding, for instance. But if they’re over-extended into use cases outside of that domain, their capabilities decay, in my experience.

Knowing what problems you should use AI to solve rather than assuming it can solve all problems will remain a key leadership skill.

What are the integration challenges?

Enterprises have complex software systems that tools need to integrate into, along with their own proprietary data sets. Factor in the integration costs and challenges, and whether you have the capability to integrate something yourself.

Major integrations are often delivered out of the box, and maintained, by vendors as part of the SaaS fee.​

What is the security risk?

If you accidentally build malware into your homegrown tool, what’s the cost to operations, brand and customer relationships? That wouldn’t be anything I’d want to explain to an impacted customer.​

Be Rigorous ​

All in all, senior tech leaders and engineers need to be clear-eyed on the tasks that AI tools are well-suited for and those that they are not.

AI can make internal builds easier in some cases. But what’s built has to work, all the time, perhaps for a long time. Overconfidence in AI on the build versus buy consideration can, and will, come back to haunt you.

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The Day and Night tour is in support of her eighth studio album of the same name, and will launch April 15 at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, Alberta. Jepsen will also perform her first headlining shows at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, and Madison Square Garden in New York City before concluding her trek in Montreal at MTELUS on May 29, 2027.

The announcement follows the release of her double LP Day and Night earlier this month, Jepsen’s first album of new music since 2023’s The Loveliest Time. The record features 24 tracks, with each LP comprising 12 songs corresponding to the Day and Night theme. A Rolling Stone review of the album praised her latest LP as Jepsen’s “most experimental and exhilarating work,” adding, “she makes falling in love feel brand-new all over again.”

Jepsen previously unveiled the music video for the LP’s single “Versailles,” which was inspired by Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette. The video was filmed in Los Angeles and directed by Kanya Iwana. It sees Jepsen dancing at a party as she imagines herself at the famous French chateau. She also released the video for her ABBA-inspired new song “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor” back in August.

The two-time Grammy nominee is also writing the music and lyrics for the 10 Things I Hate About You musical that will officially open its theatrical curtains on Aug. 17. Jepsen will co-write the score with producer Ethan Gruska.

Trending Stories

Carly Rae Jepsen Day and Night Tour Dates

Apr 15 – Edmonton, AB @ Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Apr 16 – Calgary, AB @ Grey Eagle Resort & Casino
Apr 18 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum
Apr 19 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Apr 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Apr 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Kia Forum
Apr 23 – San Diego, CA @ Gallagher Square at Petco Park
Apr 25 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Apr 27 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
Apr 30 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
May 1 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre
May 5 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
May 7 – Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
May 8 – Houston, TX –@713 Music Hall
May 10 – Nashville, TN – The Truth
May 11 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
May 12 – Charlotte, NC – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
May 14 – Washington, DC – The Anthem
May 15 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
May 18 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
May 19 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
May 21 – Chicago, IL – The Chicago Theatre
May 22 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
May 25 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
May 28 – Ottawa, ON – HISTORY
May 29 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS %!s()

The bill is now on its way to President Donald Trump for his signature. The White House did not respond to CNBC.com's request for comment on whether and when he might sign.

Claiming Social Security benefits at age 62 — when qualifying retirees first become eligible — may permanently reduce benefits by up to 30% compared with claiming at full retirement age. By waiting until age 67, individuals born in 1960 or later may receive 100% of the benefits they've earned. And for each year delayed past that "full" retirement age, up to age 70, prospective beneficiaries receive an 8% benefit boost.

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The Claiming Age Clarity Act calls for modernizing the terminology around those claiming ages to help retirees better understand the trade-offs of their decisions. It does not change the claiming ages themselves or how benefits are paid.

"This straightforward legislation aims to simplify bureaucratic jargon which may mislead Americans into making poor financial decisions," Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., said in a statement when he introduced the bill with Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., in 2025.

New terms use 'minimum,' 'standard' and 'maximum'

Under the terms of the bill, age 62 would be described as "minimum benefit age" rather than the term the Social Security Administration currently uses, "early eligibility age."

For age 66 to 67, when an individual receives 100% of their earned benefits depending on their birth year, the agency would use "standard benefit age" rather than the current "full retirement age."

And for age 70, the Social Security Administration would describe it as "maximum benefit age" rather than the current "delayed retirement age."

Social Security's funding challenges still loom

The Senate passing the bill is "great news for Americans making decisions about their Social Security benefits," Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who proposed the Senate version of the bill in 2025, said on X. Now, Congress must "tackle the bigger challenge facing Social Security" regarding the insolvency dates the program's trust funds face, Cassidy said.

Social Security's funding woes are one of the reasons people often cite for claiming benefits early. Yet experts generally say it's often still in retirees' best interest to delay claiming for as long as possible up to age 70.

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"Changing the name is a good step, an important step, but there's more work to be done," said Shai Akabas, vice president of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank's lobbying affiliate, BPC Action, backed the bill.

The idea for the language changes started about 10 years ago, according to Akabas. Other efforts to strengthen communication around Social Security retirement claiming benefits are being considered, including increasing the frequency of mailed benefit statements, he said.

The Congressional Budget Office has not scored the Claiming Age Clarity Act for its costs. In the long term, the change should not significantly affect the program's finances, Akabas said. In the short term, it may actually save the program money, since it may prompt people to claim benefits later than they otherwise would, he said.

Ultimately, broader Social Security reform addressing the program's funding issues will require bipartisan compromise. The passage of the Claiming Age Clarity Act, while a smaller change, signals an opening for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to continue talking about the program, Akabas said.

AARP also endorsed the Claiming Age Clarity Act. Research from the nonprofit organization, which represents Americans ages 50 and over, has found that while people know postponing Social Security increases their retirement benefits, they may not be sure about the exact age to maximize their benefits. %!s()

While the campaign impressed critics, the jury is still very much out

Image: The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios via Polygon

After a few brutal months of bad news, Xbox players finally have a little something to look forward to. The reviews are in for Gears of War: E-Day, the new prequel to Xbox's iconic third-person shooter series, and critics are impressed with developer The Coalition's latest. The jury is still out on the full game, though, as critics were only able to evaluate the shooter's single-player campaign ahead of launch. Its popular horde and multiplayer modes were not available for review.

As of this writing, Gears of War: E-Day has an aggregate score of 88 on Metacritic and 87 on Opencritic. That's a bit of a feat considering that some of the year's most anticipated games, including Control Resonant and The Blood of Dawnwalker, came in with less universal praise than anticipated. (Both are currently hovering at an 83 on Metacritic.) But considering that many reviewers are waiting for E-Day's multiplayer component to go live, we'll likely have to wait a week or two to see where its final score really lands. And that's likely to be lower than where it is right now, based on some down-to-Earth unscored reviews.

Gears of War: E-Day review scores are high, but multiplayer still needs rating

What we do know for sure is that the campaign is a hit with some critics. In IGN's work in progress review, which has a non-final 9/10 score attached to it, Ryan McCaffrey praised the shooter for bringing some unexpected emotional weight to the series. McCaffrey called out the game's new backstory for long-time heroes Marcus and Dom as a highlight. "Gears of War: E-Day does an excellent job of conveying both the uncertainty and the horror of what’s happening to these characters, even when we as players know exactly what’s going on," McCaffrey wrote.

ScreenRant's Chris Carter had similar praise in his 9/10 review. In addition to giving high marks for the shooting and story, Carter notes that Kalona, the city where the story is set, is part of what makes the prequel work. "The city of Kalona feels like a believable future location, and while things are in dire straits fighting off the powerful horde, the city itself is still standing, and it offers a ton of personality throughout the course of the campaign," Carter wrote.

While that may all sound promising, you may want to keep your long-term expectations in check. Several major outlets have yet to give E-Day a proper score. Based on some in-progress reviews, there's reason to think any Game of the Year ambitions will drop. PC Gamer's Abbie Stone called the campaign a "slog" despite the fact that the shooter plays as well as ever. Stone called out the campaign's repetitive gauntlet of shootouts that feel like a regression from Gears 5.

"Is the shooting strong enough to sustain this? Yeah, just, though it does get exhausting," Stone wrote. "It's an action movie with everything ripped out that isn't bullets going into bastards. The 20+ hour campaign is also waaaaay too long considering how one-note it is (well, aside from two crap shooting-from-a-turret-inside-a-helicopter bits, but I was planning on being nice and not bringing those up)."

Image: The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios via Polygon

Richard Wakeling at GameSpot was just as mixed in his in-progress review, which has a non-final 7/10 score. Wakeling noted that the tedious shooter feels too stuck in the past, missing an opportunity to do something bold with its prequel setup. On top of that, he believes that the story tries too hard to welcome in newcomers by rehashing well-trodden narrative moments.

"Introducing or refamiliarizing players with certain aspects of the Gear’s universe isn’t a knock on the game in and of itself, but the heavy emphasis on treating these known quantities as novel is indicative of a wider issue," Wakeling wrote. "E-Day seems uninterested in surprising longtime fans or appealing to the series’ own history."

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There are more so-so reviews out there that aren't weighing on aggregate scores currently, including mixed thoughts from Kotaku's Ethan Gach. Polygon's Ford James is part of that chorus, as he notes that the campaign is "intense, and after a while, exhausting." He particularly drew issue with the game's open-world segments, which he felt threw the game's pacing off.

All this is to say, don't get too excited just yet based on misleading aggregate scores. The dust hasn't settled on Gears of War: E-Day yet, and it won't until critics can get their hands on the multiplayer. Expect the reaction to settle somewhere closer to Gears 5 rather than the original three Gears of War games. %!s()