Posted by: Riikka

11 Mar 2008

(1 Comment)

Back in January it was rumored that Scarlett Johansson would be part of New York, I Love You, a project that taps 12 directors to create five-minute films, all love stories set in New York City. Woody Allen later stated this to be untrue. Now, however, we know for sure that Scarlett is indeed on board to make her directorial debut with a short film contribution to New York, I Love You!

Offering direction to actor Kevin Bacon and checking out the result on monitors, the actress handled herself with a poise as she got to work on the Big Apple set of her contribution to New York, I Love You, yesterday.

I’ve added nine photos of Scarlett on the set of the film. Behind the cut you can find an article from The Hollywood Reporter (dating back to May 20, 2007) which talks about the project. Please notice that a lot of this info is likely outdated. For example, it states that New York, I Love You would premiere at Cannes Film Festival this year but it is highly unlikely that they would get it finished by May.

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. “

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Filed under: 'New York, I Love You', Scarlett-Photos.com