Just last month, Kim had brought us a behind-the-scenes look at Wes Anderson's long-awaited, The Darjeeling Limited. While expectations for the film are running high, there's already bad critical response to the film -- and the review from The Hollywood Reporter isn't exactly helping matters. Unfortunately for fans of Anderson, the bad news doesn't end there. Hollywood Elsewhere reports that Anderson's short film Hotel Chevalier will not accompany screenings of The Darjeeling Limited as it had during its festival run. Audiences first got a look at the short film when Darjeeling premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and according to reports, the short film acts as a prequel of sorts to the feature. Chevalier stars Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, and is," a short epilogue of one heartbreaking history of love and the prologue of the travel told in 'The Darjeeling Limited". It's a clever idea, and other filmmakers have tried it before -- the short prologue at the beginning of P.T. Anderson's Magnolia comes to mind. The Darjeeling Limited stars Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman as three brothers attempting to 'bond' during a spiritual quest in India.

According to trade reports, the short will only be shown during festival screenings and will not accompany Darjeeling when it hits theaters on September 29th. I can't say I understand the logic of not including the short in the theatrical release, it's not like Wes Anderson fans would not be willing to sit in their seats for 17 more minutes -- if anything, the addition of the short could help generate a little extra buzz for the film. Although some are saying that Natalie Portman goes nude -- in the flesh -- for the first time, but the film is already rated R so I'm not sure that's a reason. But, if Searchlight decides to keep Hotel Chevalier off the theatrical cut, then at least there is something to look forward to for the DVD release.

[via Dark Horizons]