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.