I was already all sorts of excited for 500 Days of Summer, mostly because it stars two of the coolest actors in the business: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Gordon-Levitt has mad talent and a pretty unbeatable taste in projects (though G.I. Joe is an eyebrow-raiser); Deschanel is just all-around wonderful and charming -- yes, even in The Happening. I'd be psyched to watch them in anything, but I'm especially psyched to watch them in an elaborate fantasy musical, which is what 500 Days of Summer has turned out to be.

This is from an MTV story, which has a detailed plot synopsis, and descriptions of some of the film's highlights. Those apparently include a scene with fifteen (15) Zooey Deschanel body doubles, and several choreographed dance numbers led by Gordon-Levitt. The movie is a fractured, stream-of-consciousness narrative about a guy who looks back on his long relationship with the girl who just dumped him (that would be Deschanel's Summer), his reminiscences taking on the flavor of a pop musical.

This is particularly exciting news, since Zooey Deschanel is, among other things, a dynamite singer -- if you haven't checked out She & Him, her wonderful 60's-pop collaboration with indie singer-songwriter M. Ward, you're missing out. She has a sweet, lovely voice, and the songs are killer; try "This is Not a Test." I should also note that Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel worked together before either of them was a Name, in the solid, underseen psych-ward drama Manic.

The IMDb isn't the most reliable source for this sort of information, but it has the movie as being in post-production -- which makes sense since it started shooting in early May. Might it show up at Toronto this September?