(ed. note: This post was accidentally published at 1AM, instead of 1PM, so we're re-publishing it at the correct time.)

I've been thinking about the largely negative response to Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights (6 screens), a film I quite liked. As of today it's at 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, though it opens wider this weekend (including here in the Bay Area) and more reviews are surely coming in. Most critics I've spoken with around here likewise didn't think much of it. What are the reasons for all this disappointment? The main reason has to do with its weight. It's a lightweight movie, a trifle, flimsy, vapid, thin, etc. Wong is considered one of the world's greatest filmmakers, a maker of "weighty" works of art, and so this "lighter" film is beneath him. It's a letdown, a step backward.

Well, I say that's nonsense. Many great filmmakers dallied in lightweight, lesser trifles during their careers, and it didn't make them any less great. Martin Scorsese has made lots of them. After Hours (1985) and The Color of Money (1986) may not pack the punch of Raging Bull, but they are quite enjoyable, and pure Scorsese. (His current Shine a Light, 277 screens, feels like a trifle.) Fritz Lang came to the United States from a position of great power and unlimited resources in Germany and found himself assigned cheap crime pictures. Yet few critics today would complain about the "lightness" of The Big Heat or Scarlet Street. Max Ophuls also made crime films in Hollywood (Caught and The Reckless Moment), and his reputation remains intact. Some consider John Ford the greatest American director of all time, and even though his goofball Donovan's Reef (1963) isn't counted among his classics, I love it just as much. It has moments of great beauty that reflect its maker's personality. My Blueberry Nights may not stand up to In the Mood for Love, but it's unquestionably a Wong Kar-wai film.

Cinematical has just received this lovely exclusive poster (click on above image to enlarge) for the new film My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones (in her feature debut), Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Jude Law and David Strathairn. The film, which is just exploding with beautiful colors (see above poster for a small taste), marks famed director Wong Kar Wai's English-language debut -- and it centers on a young woman (Jones) who embarks on a soul-searching trip across America, running into an assortment of offbeat characters along the way. Definitely one of my favorite posters of the year so far -- once you move away from the dazzling color scheme, you're then left with the gorgeous faces of Weisz, Portman and Jones. Mmm, I can stare at this one all day long.

For more on My Blueberry Nights, feel free to check out James' review from last year's Cannes Film Festival, as well as the movie trailer over on Moviefone. My Blueberry Nights hits theaters (in limited release) on April 4.

Empire has the exclusive first look at the new poster for Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights. While the first poster release chose to put Rachel Weisz front and center, the latest one-sheet lets you know right from the get-go that this film is an ensemble in every sense of the word. The story centers on a young woman (played by Norah Jones in her acting debut) who wastes away hours in a local cafe run by a romantically philosophical type named Jeremy (played by Jude Law). The story then follows our broken hearted gal as she rambles about the country, coming into contact with an alcoholic cop and his wife (David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz) and a gambling con-artist as played by Natalie Portman.

My Blueberry Nights marks Wong Kar Wai's first attempt at an English language film, and will also be one of the few films he has shot without the services of his usual cinematographer, Christopher Doyle. Instead, the famed director hired Darius Khondji, who has worked with Woody Allen (Anything Else) and David Fincher (Panic Room). The film premiered in Cannes back in May, and while reviews were mixed (mainly directed at Jones' acting abilities), the overall impression was that the film marked some new territory for the director -- you can read James' review here. Wong Kar Wai is a master at conveying love and longing for another person. So, even though there have been some changes in his usual methods, you know you are still in some pretty capable hands. Plus, if you consider the cast and the skill of people involved in the production, it would be a shock if it didn't all somehow work. My Blueberry Nights is set to open for a limited release on February 13th, 2008.

From almost any perspective, My Blueberry Nights is the perfect pick to open the 60th Cannes Film Festival: A noted international director (Wong Kar-Wai) making his English-language debut, with a cast of international stars (Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman) and exciting memories of past appearances at the Festival as part of the bargain – in 2004, Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 was such a fresh work that the screenings of the film had to be pushed back, as the print was literally still wet. At this morning's press screening, you could hear cineastes sigh in rapture from the opening titles – blue-glazed visions of pie and cream, indigo skies with neon-glow cityscapes leaning lazily against them.

My Blueberry Nights follows Elizabeth (Norah Jones), as her recent fresh breakup sends her down into the depths of loss and then across the country. Elizabeth lives in New York, but after friendly café owner Jeremy (Jude Law) unintentionally informs her that her boyfriend has been out with another woman, she's at a loss – spending late nights in his café, eating blueberry pie and taking comfort in his gently bruised romantic philosophies. Jeremy's place has, over the years, become a bit of a depot for broken-hearted lovers to leave their keys – why, exactly, this tradition came about is never fully explained in Wong and Lawrence Block's screenplay, but still – and he's able to share with Elizabeth some of the tales of loss and love connected to each set.

Elizabeth isn't consoled by those tales, though, and sets out rambling – we see her stop in Memphis and Nevada, get a glimpse of time spent in California and Arizona – working waitressing jobs along the way. When it was announced that Jones would be taking the lead in Wong's film, the question arose: Would Jones make the leap from pop stardom to the silver screen, as many others have tried? There's certainly no doubt that Jones has a certain presence on-screen – Wong and cinematographer Darius Khondji love to show her face, framed with a lush corona of pitch-black hair – but her skills as an actress are occasionally shaky; early in the film, she's a flat and unmoved presence; she doesn't seem to be speaking from the life of a character, but, rather, reading from the lines of a script.

Cannes is almost upon us, which means that we don't have too much longer to wait until Wong Kar Wai's first English language feature, My Blueberry Nights gets screened. Recently, Ryan Stewart shared a peek at Natalie Portman, who is sporting a blonde and curly 'do for the film, and continuing to up the ante on her movie role looks. Then Christopher Campbell shared the Rachel Weisz-featuring poster, which made star Norah Jones seem like an afterthought. (I get the whole star pull thing, but sometimes the studios take this too far. Did the Silver City DVD cover bug anyone as much as me?)

Now Rope of Silicon has some stills up from the movie, and if cinematic style is any indication of greater goodness, a night of blueberries should be well worth it. The scenes are both dark and vibrantly colorful, and it looks like Kar Wai has done a great job of infusing the extreme color often present in Asian cinema with that dark, pensive look we get so often here in North America. There's the picture of Weisz, which was used for the poster, Jude Law all dishevelled in front of Norah Jones, a great shot of the singer/actress eating pie, a bubblegum bedroom shot and finally, another look at Portman, who looks like she aged a few years and went through the Legally Blonde school of style. With its Cannes premiere almost here, hopefully we will finally get a release date for the film, and not just those teasing words -- "Coming Soon."

The new film from Wong Kar Wai is bound to disappoint some of the filmmaker's die-hard fans. Aside from the fact that it is Wong's first film in English and employs a number of Hollywood stars, the factors against My Blueberry Nights include the following: it wasn't shot by Wong's longtime collaborator Christopher Doyle; it doesn't feature at least a cameo from Tony Leung; it stars a young singer in her acting debut; and it has received the touch of death by being distributed by The Weinstein Co. Of course, there are multiple reasons to hope that it isn't a disappointment, let alone a failure, and we've just received a new one: the film's poster would look great on a fan's wall.

Never mind the beautiful design of the poster, which miraculously makes orange a color that I don't hate looking at. The main attraction is the prominence of Rachel Weisz, who is being capitalized on for her recent Oscar win. Six years after being left out of the main poster for Enemy at the Gates, the actress has apparently become a bigger attraction than Jude Law, her costar in that film. Though Law has a higher billing in the cast list at the bottom, he is given a much smaller role in visually representing the film. Meanwhile, Norah Jones, who is actually Blueberry's star, is barely seen in the lower left, where her image is also somewhat blurred. Rounding out the featured cast is Natalie Portman, seen driving a car. Actors Ed Harris, Tim Roth and David Strathairn are also represented, but only by name.

This poster may not be the final one-sheet for the film's release, especially since it features the words 'coming soon' rather than a release date (which is so far still unknown). It also seems to be a Canadian poster, because it includes the logo for Christal Films, which is distributing the film up north. We could very well see a totally different design from the Weinsteins. My Blueberry Nights will premiere in France in two weeks when it opens the Cannes Film Festival.

It's been a while since we've had some news on My Blueberry Nights, so let's catch up: Martha Fischer started reporting about the film when it was announced, and then told us about the pic's growing cast. To review, Blueberry Nights is the new, and first English feature, of writer-director Wong Kar-wai. The film is a road trip love story that centers on a woman, played by first-time actress Norah Jones, as she travels across America meeting strange, new people. It is also based on a short film about a shopkeeper who falls for a blueberry pie fiend. Also making an appearance in the flick are Rachel Weisz, Jude Law (pictures of him in the film are now on imdb), and Natalie Portman.

Filming is now completed, and David Strathairn and Tim Roth were also added to the cast. There was some rumor that Ed Harris would be in that list, but no reports seem to confirm it. I would imagine that it never came to be if he wasn't mentioned in the new Hollywood Reporter blurb, which has announced that those Weinstein boys have picked up the rights to the movie.

These days, you can't throw a stick without hitting a Weinstein. However, every time I hear the name, I can't help but think of that Kevin Smith story about Harvey walking out of Clerks. Yet the Weinsteins acquiring My Blueberry Nights makes sense. Wong sees Harvey as an old friend, and sites him as having a "key role" in introducing Chungking Express to the US. The brotherly duo may have split from Disney/Miramax, but they still have one hell of a little black book.

According to StudioCanal, the production company that is shopping distribution rights for Wong Kar-Wai's English language debut My Blueberry Nights at Cannes, the movie is heading into pre-production right after its director gets done with that whole Chairing the Cannes Jury thing. Seeing as how we're talking about WKW here, the fact that two updates, two months apart are talking about the same start date is something of a minor miracle (that said, of course, if we don't see the movie until 2010, no one will really be surprised). In addition to the previously-announced cast consisting of Norah Jones, Rachel Weisz and Jude Law, Variety reported this morning that Natalie Portman is also on board. The film will center on Jones, who travels across the US to "find the true meaning of love, encountering offbeat characters along the way."

You'd think that Wong must be salivating over this project just as much as his fans are -- imagine what he'll be able to do with the lights of Las Vegas, or the wide open spaces of the American West (to help you conjure up the latter, check out the mind-blowing Ashes of Time). As long as he brings Christopher Doyle along to shoot the thing, the movie has the potential to be just incredible.

According to a roundup at Monkey Peaches, several Hong Kong newspapers this morning are reporting that Wong Kar-Wai's My Blueberry Night - his first film shot in English, and first on American soil - is scheduled to go into production in June. Reassuringly, it's NOT going to be about Hurricane Katrina, despite earlier rumors that mistakenly combined this film with Wong's stated interest in making a movie about Katrina's effects. Instead, the film, which stars Norah Jones, Rachel Weisz and (this one's new) Jude Law, is going to be a road movie, "shot on multiple locations from New York to California, including Las Vegas." Yes, I'm a huge WKW whore who will love pretty much anything he does, but I still think this sounds fantastic, particularly if Christopher Doyle is involved - just imagine how he'd shoot Vegas, or the deserts of the American southwest. That thought actually just gave me chills.

The Monkey Peaches report also confirms that The Lady from Shanghai has been delayed, and will be shot after both Blueberry Night and Baz Luhrmann's untitled Aussie epic, in which Wong's star Nicole Kidman is appearing alongside Russell Crowe.

In addition to the two new movies about which we've already heard  - The Lady from Shanghai (thankfully not a remake) and his Katrina-except-in-NYC flick - Wong Kar Wai is reportedly working on a third film called Blueberry Nights. Like both Lady and the Katrina film, it will be shot in New York, and is expected to be Wong's first English-language project. The film is set to star Norah Jones, and Rachel Weisz, too, might be involved - she's told the press that she is going to appear in Wong's "next film," but it's unclear which project she's talking about (or, indeed, if she even knows). The movie will be based (at least right now - who knows what will happen once Wong starts filming) on a short in which "a shopkeeper falls for a mysterious female client who eats blueberry pies."

Call me crazy, but that sounds awesome - after all, half of Chungking Express revolves around a guy eating canned pineapple, and that movie is practically perfect. Blueberry Nights has a budget of about $10 million and is expected to start shooting in New York sometimes before The Lady from Shanghai, which was recently pushed back, goes into production in 2007.