I saw the trailer of this a few months ago but for some odd reason I thought ‘meh, another ensemble cast of good looking, supposedly cool, young actors’ and forgot about it. Then today I came across it again and read something about it being the unofficial follow-up to Paris, je t’aime (see the trailer here). I must’ve missed it somehow as knowing that would definitely sparked my interest. Paris je t’aime is a compilation of shorts by famous directors from all over the globe about love in the city of lights. They swap Paris with New York this time, with individual love stories interwoven together to make up one whole film.

Check out the entire cast on IMDb, this is even more star-studded than the Paris counterpart. But it seems to have a pretty decent mix of actors from various age range – from young’uns Blake Lively, Orlando Bloom, Shia LeBeouf, Natalie Portman to veterans Chris Cooper, John Hurt, James Caan and Julie Christie. The International directors include Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) and Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), as well as Natalie Portman’s directing debut. But Portman’s co-star in The Other Boleyn Girl didn’t fare too well. According to Entertainment Weekly, Scarlett Johansson’s directorial effort starring Kevin Bacon didn’t make the final cut, apparently the story just didn’t work in the context of the movie. Oops.

Anyway,  judging from the trailer, this one doesn’t feel as quirky as Paris je t’aime somehow. Or is it just me? Well, at least it looks a heck of a lot better than Valentine’s Day, another love-themed, star-studded flick. I’m officially removing that from my Top Ten Anticipated Movies of 2010.

New York, I Love You opens this Friday in limited release.