Many a filmmaker has made New York City a muse over the years, and some have even fashioned entire careers around a kind of ode to the Big Apple — Woody Allen, for example, or the makers of Sex and the City [1]. Now the city is getting some serious love as dozens of stars and filmmakers begin production on a film anthology called New York, I Love You (not to be confused with I Love New York [2], mind you).
Based on a similar project called Paris, je t'aime [3] that's part of an emerging franchise of "love" movies, the anthology will consist of a series of film shorts that will be written, directed and performed by some of the biggest names in Hollywood. As one person associated with the project told Variety [4], New York, I Love You is meant to be a "a valentine to the city." As producer Marina Grasic said:
"With films like Crash and Babel, the approach to narrative has changed. . . . People are getting more sophisticated about watching content in shorter forms."
Does the idea of a bunch of short stories set in New York get your heart fluttering? I'm pretty excited to see how this unfolds myself. To learn more about who's involved with the project and other details about this film,
- Also according to Variety, directors working on the project include Mira Nair, Brett Ratner and Alan Hughes.
- The late Anthony Migehella-scripted shorts that will star Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie and John Hurt will now be directed by Shekhar Kapur [5] according to the Hollywood Reporter.
- Both Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson will make their directorial debuts on this project.
- Other actors associated with the project include Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Anton Yelchin, Drea de Matteo, Ethan Hawke, Orlando Bloom, Blake Lively, Robin Wright Penn, Olivia Thirlby and Kevin Bacon.
- Several other cities will get some "love," including Shanghai, then a city in South America, then somewhere in Africa.