Here's a treat for anyone who enjoyed Paris, Je T'Aime last year but worried that it was a bit, well, French. A veritable galaxy of stars have signed on to star in or direct the similarly portmanteaued piece that is New York, I Love You, which is shaping up to send a love letter to the Big Apple.
Orlando Bloom, Hayden Christensen, Ethan Hawke and Olivia Thirlby (the best mate in Juno) have just joined a cast that includes (deep breath) Kevin Bacon, Rachel Bilson, James Caan, Bradley Cooper, Chris Cooper (no relation), Drea DeMatteo, Cloris Leachman, Gossip Girl's Blake Lively, Maggie Q, Eli Wallach, Robin-Wright Penn and Anton Yelchin. Oh, and if you're a ballet fan you'll be beside yourself to learn that Carlos Acosta, this generation's Nureyev except Cuban instead of Russian, is also taking a role.
But even more interesting are some of the directorial choices for the segments. Both Anne and Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, are making their directorial debuts on the piece (you may already have seen the paparazzi shots of Johansson on set, wearing a beret and looking uncannily like Cecil B. De Mille). Other directors you'll have heard of include Mira Nair and Brett Ratner, but so far the directorial side of things hasn't landed quite such big names as its Gallic counterpart.
With filming already underway, we should see this in the next year or so - but it hasn't confirmed a distributor yet so don't quote us on that. And if this one goes well, expect to see planned cinematic love-letters to Shanghai and Africa (hey! That's not a city!) in the near future.