Hotel Chevalier, Wes Anderson’s 17-minute Darjeeling Limited-related short that supposedly shows Natalie Portman nude, will premiere at Apple Stores in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco on Tuesday, and will be available on iTunes the following day. Though Anderson may be trying to add Chevalier to the Darjeeling after the first few weeks. 

In other news, Bakersfield just added a second IHOP.  It’s a wonderful time to be alive! 

[via /film] 

/film has some of the latest pics from the set of Darjeeling Limited.

My only question is: is that a scarf or an ascot?  There's a crucial distinction there. Scarves are what asshole hipsters wear even when it's 85 degrees.  Ascots are what distinguished gents like myself don when smoking a pipe or wagering a farthing or two at the rat baiting. 

Also, I fear he may have contracted the same disease as George Lucas, that causes the afflicted to groom and dress like an aging lesbian.

/Film has the latest batch of Wes Anderson-directed AT&T commercials, and they look more or less exactly like Life Aquatic without the strange CGI (or the topless script girl *frownie face*). The most surprising thing about them is that they don't seem to involve India or Indian people in any way.

I try to make it a point not to criticize someone who has yet to make a movie I haven't enjoyed, but Wes Anderson is on thin ice.  There's something very smug and self satisfied about all these.  And at the same time, you have to give him credit for his flawless execution.

He's getting to be like George Clooney – you want to hate the guy for thinking he's so likable and handsome, but it's hard because he's so damned likable and handsome. I may just have to kill him and then wear his corpse around the house while I storyboard elaborate set pieces involving G.I. Joes and Bugle Snacks.  "I am a famous movie director," I'd tell the children.  

Despite earlier reports, it appears that Wes Anderson's short Hotel Chevalier will not be playing before The Darjeeling Limited once it hits theatres on September 29th (though it will be released online and included in the DVD).

It also appears that the early press on Darjeeling is not good. From the Hollywood Reporter:

What ensues is like a third-rate Hope and Crosby picture with no big laughs and nothing to say as the completely self-involved threesome ride the rails in a circle back to their dull and uninteresting lives. "Darjeeling" will need all the help it can get to find audiences beyond the stars' committed fans.

While I'm not a person who relies heavily on reviews, especially from the Hollywood Reporter, I've said all along that this looks more like an excuse to dick around India than an idea for a great movie.  And I'll trust pretty much anything that reinforces my own stereotypes.  I watch Michael Bay movies because deep down I know that black people always keep it real, and I use the internet because I know that sexy girls from my area want to meet for hook ups and sexy parties. 

In conclusion, Asian girls are bad at driving. 

In these new Darjeeling Limited featurettes (it's like a feature with a vagina), various people involved in making the movie, whine about the difficulties of making a movie in India.  

Well duh, that's why Indians never make movies.  Have you ever heard of an Indian movie? I certainly haven't. Preposterous.

Check out two other well crafted but largely pointless featurettes over at MTV. And a sweet clip of the only Indian movie ever made, after the jump.