The TV Addict 

Though the loose reason for writing this REEL news installment is the fact that Vivendi Entertainment and Palm Pictures has secured the distribution rights to NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU in North America, I just really wanted a chance to shamelessly gush about how excited I am about this project.

For those of you not in the know, NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU is a spiritual sequel of sorts to one of my favorite films of last year, PARIS, J’TAIME. The basic idea behind the movie was that several filmmakers (mostly writer-directors) came up with roughly ten minute short films dedicated to why Paris was great. Now that same concept is being applied to New York. Given that it’s the Big Apple, needless to say the turnout of actors, writers, and directors is pretty spectacular. For directors we have among others, Andrei Zvyaginstev (THE RETURN), Shehkar Kapur (ELIZABETH), Joshua Marston (MARIA FULL OF GRACE), Brett Ratner (RUSH HOUR, RED DRAGON), Mira Nair (MONSOON WEDDING, THE NAMESAKE), and Allen Hughes (MENACE II SOCIETY, FROM HELL). We’re even going to be blessed with the directorial debuts of both Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. As for actors, well, you’re probably best off just reading the IMDB rap sheet because it’s pretty nuts.

I’m not just excited about the filmmakers involved though. I’m also just huge fan of what one might call the “vignette genre,” which represents films that are made of a bunch of shorter films that can or cannot be tied together through some common thematic thread. I’m talking about films like NINE LIVES, 13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING, SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE, COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, and NIGHT ON EARTH. So to have yet another entry in the pseudo-genre guided by renowned writers, directors, and actors, has me all a tingle. Admittedly part of that tingling might be me just thinking about Scarlett Johansson though.

Source: Variety