LaBeouf and Christie Love New York, Too

Shia LaBeouf, pondering. 

So yesterday I was talking about the anthology film, New York, I Love You, the NYC follow up to last year’s Paris, Je t’aime, and today we have more new about it (well, if you make enough films in enough boroughs, you’ll have lots of stuff to keep reporting).

Anyway, The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Shia LaBeouf and Julie Christie are working on the script that Anthony Minghella had written and planned to direct. The story, described as in the vein of Minghella’s early film, Truly Madly Deeply, is about a woman who in a hotel between two worlds and meets a mysterious young man there, with whom she discovers a mysterious connection. Shekhar Kapur took over the directing duties after Minghella’s death and the short is currently filming on the Upper East Side (yeah, I didn’t think Julie Christie would be spending her late career renaissance trudging around the south Bronx).

Other cast members for the big group of shorts are Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Anton Yelchin, Drea de Matteo, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon, Carlos Acosta, Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Irfan Khan, Cloris Leachman, Blake Lively, Emilie Ohana, Maggie Q, Shu Qi, Olivia Thirlby, Eli Wallach, Saul Williams, Robin Wright Penn, Anton Yelchin and Ugur Yucel.

As noted yesterday, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson are also directing pieces. Now word comes that Johansson’s film, “follows the journey of a lonely man and his vision of the city.” Scarlett, I know I shouldn’t be the one giving you advice, but this sounds like it would be awful in the hands of anyone short of a brilliant, acccomplished artist. In the hands of a twenty something starlet whose done nothing but act her whole short life, it seems like a recipe for disaster. It might have been wiser to stick to something a little closer to home for a beginning piece. But again, not like you should listen to me.