Vivendi Entertainment and Palm Pictures have secured U.S. rights to New York, I Love You, the ensemble collection of 12 short films currently in production in Manhattan.

Pic is produced by Emmanuel Benbihy and Marina Grasic.

The companies plan to release the film early next year. Shooting is almost two-thirds complete.

Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson make their helming debuts on two of the shorts, all of which are love stories of various kinds. Among helmers onboard are Brett Ratner and Fatih Akin, and the cast already includes Kevin Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Julie Christie, Chris Cooper and Shia LaBeouf.

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Visitor Pictures brings us the full list of the directors and main actors for the New York, I Love You project. Boleyn fans will be happy to see co-star and friend Natalie Portman listed both as a director and actor! However, Natalie and Scarlett are not involved in the same segment.

The universal theme of encountering and celebrating love is told in 12 separate stories taking place in the five boroughs of New York City.

Directed by:

Fatih Akin
Yvan Attal
Alan Hughes
Shunji Iwai
Scarlett Johnansson
Shekhar Kapur
Joshua Martson
Mira Nair
Natalie Portman
Brett Ratner
Jiang Wen
Andrey Zvyaginstev

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Scarlett Johansson, all bundled up, was pictured giving directions to her short film’s star, Kevin Bacon, earlier today on the set of New York, I Love You. I’ve added 17 pictures in the gallery.

If anyone would like to see more shots of Kevin Bacon alone, just let me know and I’d be happy to add them!

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 Please notice that a lot of this info is likely outdated.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.

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Woody Allen was once again asked about his working relationship with Miss Scarlett in a new interview for MTV Movies. He also states that there is no truth to the New York anthology film. Click on the link for the full interview or simply check out the related quotes here:

MTV: There was a report the other day that said you and Scarlett Johansson are going to be a part of a New York anthology film.

Allen: A complete and total fabrication. Made up like a poem by Coleridge. Completely untrue. It wasn’t even grounded in any conversations or anything.

MTV: It is true, however, that you and Scarlett have a great working relationship. Why do you think you two click?

Allen: She just dropped into my professional life inadvertently. It was supposed to be Kate Winslet in Match Point, and at the last minute she was exhausted and called up and said she wanted to back out of it because she’d been doing movie after movie and wanted to spend time with her child. And I understood that completely. I don’t think movies should be anyone’s top priority. I said, “Sure, no problem.” Of course I was faking it, because it was a problem for us. We were trying to figure out who was available for it, and Scarlett happened to be available. This all happened over one weekend. As soon as I met her, I had a very good rapport with her. She’s very charming, very bright, very amusing. She livens the set up. The minute she walks on the set, the amperage goes up 200 points. She’s a great kid and very talented. She can sing. She can do dramatic things and jokes if you need her to. Whenever there’s a part she could play, she would probably always be my first choice.

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PageSix.com reports that Scarlett is set to make her directorial debut with a short film set in New York! Knowing that directing has always been a dream of Scarlett’s, I personally could not be more excited for her. :heart:

Woody Allen muse Scarlett Johansson will soon make her directorial debut this year in New York, I Love You, PageSix.com has learned exclusively.

The project, in which Allen will also participate, taps 12 directors to create five-minute films, all love stories set in NYC.

Johansson and Allen will join confirmed directors Anthony Minghella and Mira Nair on the project, from the producers of Paris, J’Taime, a similar flick from 2006.

ScarJo, a New York native and granddaughter of Danish filmmaker Ejner Johansson, is taking the leap with a series of acting projects on the burner.

Reports surfaced yesterday that Johansson was approached by Courtney Love to play her in Heavier Than Heaven, a forthcoming Kurt Cobain biopic.