The Toronto International Film Festival made its final announcement this morning and so the fall film festival circuit geography is basically set, other than waiting for the day-of Telluride announcement, which has already been largely telegraphed by the status of TIFF and the New York Film Festival and whatever Fantastic Fest has left to offer, of course.
It’s a remarkably vast playing field, with hundreds of films to choose from. With that in mind, there’s lots of smaller films that aren’t as name brand as say, “The Equalizer” starring Denzel Washington. So a few first looks and new photos have arrived from such films.
But first, note a movie that surprisingly isn’t at TIFF: "Kill The Messenger" starting Jeremy Renner. Directed by Michael Cuesta (a producer and director on “Homeland”), the dramatic thriller boasts quite a cast, including Rosemarie DeWitt, Ray Liotta, Tim Blake Nelson, Barry Pepper, Oliver Platt, Michael Sheen, Paz Vega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Andy Garcia.
Here’s the synopsis: Two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner (“The Bourne Legacy”) leads an all-star cast in a dramatic thriller based on the remarkable true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb. Webb stumbles onto a story which leads to the shady origins of the men who started the crack epidemic on the nation’s streets…and further alleges that the CIA was aware of major dealers who were smuggling cocaine into the U.S., and using the profits to arm rebels fighting in Nicaragua. Despite warnings from drug kingpins and CIA operatives to stop his investigation, Webb keeps digging to uncover a conspiracy with explosive implications. His journey takes him from the prisons of California to the villages of Nicaragua to the highest corridors of power in Washington, D.C. – and draws the kind of attention that threatens not just his career, but his family and his life.
The film opens on Oct 10th.
Next up is Mia Hansen-Love‘s latest effort, "Eden." The French filmmaker (and wife of fellow director Olivier Assayas) impressed cineastes with "Goodbye Love," her 2012 drama starring breakout French actress Lola Creton, and thus her latest is highly anticipated. Set during the French house music explosion of the 1990s, a scene that Hansen-Love witnessed firsthand —via her brother, a DJ who rose up in the movement— the movie is a nostalgic romance set along the backdrop of this vibrant musical renaissance.
“It’s a massive project, though, sort of a two-part movie,” she said in 2012. “My brother was quite a successful DJ in the 1990s, Sven Løve. He was part of a group who did residencies at the Queen club in Paris and out of that came Daft Punk and that whole French house movement. It was a huge chunk of my life. So I’m trying to use that era to tell a big love story.”
Starring Greta Gerwig and Brady Corbet (or at least they are the most recognizable names in the cast), some new photos of the film have been revealed which you can see below. The film also features French actors Felix De Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne, Golshifteh Farahani, Laura Smet, and Vincent Lacoste. The film will make its world premiere at TIFF and will also be seen at the New York Film Festival in October. No release date or American distributor yet, but that will surely change once it’s revealed.
Lastly comes festival favorite Xavier Dolan in a movie he didn’t write or direct. Titled "The Elephant Song” the Canadian movie stars Bruce Greenwood, Catherine Keener, Carrie-Anne Moss, Guy Nadon and Colm Feore as well as the Montreal-bred writer/director who has a meaty role in the film. Directed by Charles Binamé, the movie is a adaptation of a Nicolas Billon play about a psychiatrist (Greenwood) who is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient (Dolan) about the disappearance of a colleague.
The movie will make its debut at TIFF and it’ll be interesting to see Dolan outside his own element in what is the second lead role in the movie. No release date info yet. Photos below.