Damn, we were just talking about this one internally last night in our debates about what may appear during the 2010 fall film festival and were noting how quiet everything was on the “Black Swan” front, Darren Aronofsky’s new supernatural-esque ballet thriller starring Natalie Portman.
The film centers on the relationship between a veteran ballet dancer (Portman) and a rival, played by Mila Kunis who may or may not be a figment of the dancer’s imagination and it also stars Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel, Sebastian Stan (Bucky In “Captain America”) and Barbara Hershey.
Well, news has finally arrived. According to Variety, the 67th Annual Venice Film Festival is looking to premiere the picture this September (the fest runs September 1-11). The trade calls it a near certainty and this unofficial announcement makes sense because Aronofsky debuted a dripping-wet new print of “The Wrestler” to Venice in 2008 where it won the prestigious Golden Lion Award.
Other pictures likely to debut are Ben Affleck’s “The Town,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff” and previously tipped films like Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” and Anton Corbijn’s “The American.” It is almost a certainty that most of these pictures will also make their North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as well (aside from Corbijn’s film which hits North America September 3, before TIFF starts).
Other pictures expected to appear at Venice include Tom Tykwer’s Berlin-set love triangle pic “Three” (starring German actor Devid Striesow from “The Counterfeiters”), Paul Morrissey’s long-gestating “News From Nowhere,” Abdel Kechiche’s “Black Venus” (he directed the excellent 2008 film, “The Secret of the Grain” picked up by Criterion recently), Francois Ozon’s “Potiche” starring Catherine Denevue (which was heavily rumored to appear at Cannes earlier this year, but never made the cut), Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech,” a Colin Firth-led picture that the Weinstein Company are eyeing for awards season with via a November 24 release date.
There’s even more. Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader,” Isaac Julien’s “Ten Thousand Waves” starring Maggie Cheung, the previously tipped, “Miral” by Julian Schnabel, Monte Hellman’s “Road To Nowhere,” Richard J. Lewis’ “Barney’s Version” starring Dustin Hoffman, “Wilde Salome” starring Al Pacino, “The Solitude of Prime Numbers,” featuring Isabella Rossellini, the Italian gangster epic “Vallanzasca,” Takashi Miike’s samurai swashbuckler “Thirteen Assassins,” plus John Woo’s “Reign of Assassins” and Johnny To’s thriller “Shares.” All these pictures could make their North American premieres at TIFF or the New York Film Festival as well.
WHEW. That’s a lot of films. Of course, none of these are official, but Variety obviously has a very strong track record here. Note, no mention of Terrence Malick’s “Tree Of Life,” which was once mentioned as a shoo-in, but news reversed itself once Apparition fell apart internally.