Editorials > LaBeouf, Christie, Hurt to Star in Minghella's Former Segment of "New York"

Not long after Anthony Minghella's passing, Shekhar Kapur announced that he would be taking over the directorial duties for Minghella's segment in the anthology film "New York, I Love You," the follow up to last year's "Paris, je t'aime." Now, the primary cast has been announced for the short film that is said by some to be similar in theme to Minghella's own "Truly, Madly, Deeply." Julie Christie will play "a woman who checks into a hotel that is in between worlds. There, she meets a young man and the two discover not only a mysterious connection but develop an understanding as to their situation." Shia LaBeouf will play the young man, and somehow his "Indiana Jones 4" co-star John Hurt will be there, too.

This anthology is acquiring quite a cast. Here's a current count courtesy of THR:

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, Natalie Portman, Maggie Q, Shu Qi, Olivia Thirlby, Eli Wallach, Saul Williams, Robin Wright Penn, and Ugur Yucel. 

Certainly a qualified group, even split up into separate shorts. The directors on the other hand are a little less impressive:

Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Andrei Zvyagintsev, Randall Balsmeyer, Shekhar Kapur, Allen Hughes, Brett Ratner, and Scarlett Johansson.

I'll confess that I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to contemporary international cinema, but even putting aside the fact that I've never heard of six of these people, there isn't anyone in this group that really stands out as a great filmmaker (Mira Nair comes closest, of the ones I know). Compare this list to the group that directed "Paris je t'aime" (Cuaron, Van Sant, Coen, Doyle, Craven, Assayas, Tykver, Payne, Salles) and there's just no contest as to which city got the better deal.

It will be interesting though to see which of the Boleyn girls has a better directorial debut. My instinct is to put money on Portman, but Harvard smarts don't guarantee directing prowess, and maybe Johansson will have picked up a few of Woody Allen's better instincts.

-David Morgan