New York, I Love You

[MacGuffin]

Directors sign on for N.Y. 'Love' affair
Source: Hollywood Reporter

CANNES -- Producer Emmanuel Benbihy has assembled a who's who of hot helmers to head to New York to shoot his upcoming project "New York, je t'aime" (New York, I Love You), with names including Zach Braff, Mira Nair, Park Chan-Wook and Fatih Akin.

Benbihy said in an interview that other directors signed to contribute to the $14 million project to date are Yvan Attal, Wang Xiaoshuai, Emanuele Crialese, Albert and Allen Hughes and Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Three more directors are to be added to the 12-strong lineup on the movie, which has the support of the city and state of New York and is co-produced by Benbihy's producer partner Marianne Maddalena, whose credits include Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" and the "Scream" trilogy.

The project also has backing from the recently announced Future Films and Grand Army Entertainment funding pact.

"With 'NY, I Love You,' we really want to surprise audiences with young, hip filmmakers with their own personal style and movie language," Benbihy said.

Producers are planning a first-quarter 2008 delivery with plans to submit the movie to unspool at next year's Festival de Cannes.

Each director will create a five-minute segment about a love encounter in a district of the five boroughs for a 100-minute long final cut.

"The idea is to give the impression of a community of directors," Benbihy said.

A 13th, as-yet-unchosen, filmmaker will fashion a series of the transition sequences to make the movie much more fluid than "Paris, Je t'aime."

With no credits to be shown until the end of the film, the audience will have a single narrative experience.

"Hopefully, with 'NY, I Love You,' critics will have more difficulty choosing their favorite or least favorite segments. They'll all be good. We want to give the illusion of unity as much as possible and bring the narrative challenge a step further," Benbihy said.

The film, unlike its mostly French-language predecessor, will be shot almost entirely in English. "We'll try to be as representative of the city as possible, that's the idea," Benbihy said.

Benbihy is also sketching plans for "China, I Love You," aiming for summer 2008.

"We hope we've started a new movement in cinema, a different way to make movies," Benbihy said.

The producer wants to roll out a series of U.S.-based projects for foreign directors who want to shoot in the territory.

He added: "The Cities of Love concept is about people. It has nothing to do with politics. We want to show that love is universal. It's the right time to say 'New York, I Love You.' "

[I Don't Believe in Beatles]

Three more directors are to be added to the 12-strong lineup on the movie, which has the support of the city and state of New York and is co-produced by Benbihy's producer partner Marianne Maddalena, whose credits include Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" and the "Scream" trilogy.

I hope Woody Allen's one of those three directors.  It seems strange to make a love-letter to New York without him.

[Pubrick]

Producer Emmanuel Benbihy

Benbihy is also sketching plans for "China, I Love You," aiming for summer 2008.

"We hope we've started a new movement in cinema, a different way to make movies," Benbihy said.

He added: "The Cities of Love concept is about people. It has nothing to do with politics. We want to show that love is universal. It's the right time to say 'New York, I Love You.' "

why isn't the New York one called "New York, I Love You" ??

if the concept is "Cities of Love" then why is the next one going be CHINA???

and making short films around one concept and selling them as a feature is supposed to be "a new movement in cinema"????

right cos the concept didn't fail miserably already in Eros, 11'09''01, Four Rooms, Two Evil Eyes and New York stories. come on now. why do people keep insisting that short-film collective endeavors are a good idea?

i'll be watching paris, but this douche seems to have no idea what he's talking about. to recap:
-short-film collectives is not a new movement
-keeping each title in the language of its subject would make more sense.
-china is not a city. forget your own concept much?

[Kal]

I dont say this often but I agree with P

[MacGuffin]

Kapur to direct Minghella 'New York' piece
Source: Hollywood Reporter

The director who brought Elizabethan England to the big screen will carry on the legacy of a modern British legend.

Shekhar Kapur, the Indian-born helmer of movies such as "Elizabeth" and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," will direct one of the last pieces of writing from the late Anthony Minghella, a segment of the urban ode "New York, I Love You."

Minghella had written but not cast or shot his segment of the episodic film, which was to have begun shooting in April in Manhattan.

Producers last week said they were awaiting word from the family before making a decision. According to Kapur, Minghella asked the director to carry out his work shortly before the "English Patient" director went in for surgery two weeks ago. "He told me his film was about the value of life and how people sometimes just throw away their lives, unable to look beyond into the real beauty of it," Kapur wrote on his blog. "I will direct the film now -- with Anthony in my heart and in presence of his soul."
 
Sources confirmed Kapur was indeed attached to the segment.

Kapur is best known for his twin "Elizabeth" pictures, which earned an Oscar nomination for star Cate Blanchett and a Golden Globe nom for him. He's also attached to direct the adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series for Fox.

The tapping of Kapur to direct the film resolves one question about Minghella's posthumous work. The status of several other film projects, including the Weinstein Co.'s "The Ninth Life of Louis Drax" and Miramax's "The Resurrectionist" as well as the HBO series "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" remain uncertain.

Minghella passed away suddenly last week at 54, leaving many who had worked closely with him over the past two decades in mourning and putting a number of the prolific writer-director's projects on hold.

[B.C. Long]

Three more directors are to be added to the 12-strong lineup on the movie, which has the support of the city and state of New York and is co-produced by Benbihy's producer partner Marianne Maddalena, whose credits include Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" and the "Scream" trilogy.

I hope Woody Allen's one of those three directors.  It seems strange to make a love-letter to New York without him.

Or Scorsese.

[modage]

there are signs outside my apartment that this is filming here, probably tomorrow.  i wonder which director it will be?

[MacGuffin]

Bloom, Hawke, Thirlby 'Love' N.Y.
Johansson, Portman to make helming debuts
Source: Variety

An eclectic group of thesps and helmers are fanning out across Gotham's five boroughs to shoot "New York, I Love You."

Orlando Bloom, Olivia Thirlby, Hayden Christensen and Ethan Hawke are among those who have boarded the omnibus pic, a mixture of contemplative romance and unabashed civic boosterism. The anthology of shorts follows the format of "Paris, je t'aime," a surprise specialty hit released last year.

A few names had been rumored online since the project was first announced last spring (Woody Allen has nothing to do with it, contrary to reports). Paparazzi have swooped down on the production, currently midway through a planned 10-week shoot, and blogs started to teem with photos, especially when Scarlett Johansson started lining up shots.

Johansson, like fellow thesp Natalie Portman, is making her helming debut on the project. Portman also stars in a separate short.

Directors include Mira Nair, Brett Ratner and Alan Hughes, plus international helmers such as Fatih Akin, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Wen Jiang. The pic's producers include Marina Grasic, exec producer of "Crash"; Marianne Maddalena, of the "Scream" pics; and Jan Korbelin, exec producer of Lionsgate's "The Lucky Ones."

Domestic rights are still being negotiated, and Bill Bloch's QED is selling international.

Using a similar approach, "Paris je t'aime" quietly racked up nearly $5 million at the domestic B.O., quite a feat for a French-language title. First Look distribbed in the U.S.

"Paris je t'aime" kicked off producer Emmanuel Benhiby's planned global series that could see numerous locales get the "I love you" treatment, with Shanghai and Africa on the drawing board. The timing is right, the filmmakers add.

"This is a way for directors to play with a format that isn't 90 minutes," Korbelin said.

"With films like 'Crash' and 'Babel,' the approach to narrative has changed," Grasic said. "People are getting more sophisticated about watching content in shorter forms."

In one business respect, "New York" stands out amid the current tide of pics such as "Sex and the City" and "Enchanted" that have spotlighted Gotham locations. NYC & Co., the official marketing and tourism organization for the City of New York, is fully behind the pic, throwing its weight into sponsorship deals.

A major airline is in final talks to help ferry talent to and from the city and promote the film on its aircraft, for example. Such co-branding deals go well beyond the typical offer of a few bus shelter ads and minor marketing considerations.

"Given that this film is a valentine to the city, the city feels extra responsibility," said one person involved in dealmaking.

So what's to separate the movie from simple testimonial tourism promos that would run in a taxicab or on a billboard? The filmmakers say that the explicit auteur approach, as well as interstitial material that weaves together the shorts into a planned 100-minute whole, will steer clear of overt shilling.

Still, "This is a natural for New York," Grasic said. "It's definitely going to be cross-promotional."

In the end, they say, New York will be a character, as it has been in films since the silent era, with a special nod to the diversity of 21st century Gotham.

"There are a lot of culture clashes and love stories involving people of different races," noted Grasic.

Other confirmed thesps include Carlos Acosta, Kevin Bacon, Justin Bartha, Rachel Bilson, James Caan, Bradley Cooper, Chris Cooper, Drea de Matteo, Irrfan Khan, Cloris Leachman, Blake Lively, Emilie Ohana, Maggie Q, Shu Qi, Eli Wallach, Saul Williams, Robin Wright-Penn, Anton Yelchin and Ugur Yucel.

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

[matt35mm]

For some reason I just don't think I'd like these movies.  I can't bring myself to watch Paris, Je T'aime, and this one looks dumb too.

[Sleepless]

Just not a fan of anthology films. But put the shorts online and I might get around to checking them out.

[Gamblour.]

Paris Je T'aime is actually pretty good, and has Alexander Payne's best work ever. Some of it is difficult, even from people that are normally pretty solid (Alfonso Cuaron I'm looking at your goddamn tracking shot). This new trailer had waaaay too much Shia the beef.

[squints]

I would love to have seen an entire movie about the character from Alexander Payne's bit from Paris Je T'aime...that was just absolutely brilliant.

[picolas]

I Heart NY is the obvious title for this. frustrating.

[matt35mm]

I Heart NY is the obvious title for this. frustrating.

I'm sure that they considered it.  But after licking each others balls they decided to go with New York, I Love You.

Also the title is so obvious that I wouldn't be surprised if a studio already owns the rights to it.