Outlaw King to open TIFF
Canadian films include The Lie by Veena Sud
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced that its 2018 edition will open on Sept. 6 with the world première of Outlaw King, a period drama co-written and directed by David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) and starring Chris Pine as the 14th-century Scottish king Robert the Bruce. The film also stars Aaron Taylor Johnson, Florence Pugh and Billy Howle.
Outlaw King is a Netflix production that will be released on the streaming service and in select cinemas on Nov. 9.
As such, TIFF seems to be further distancing itself from the fracas that enveloped Cannes this year, when Netflix decided not to take any of its movies to the French festival after organizers ruled that any film without theatrical distribution could not play in competition there.
The opening-night film was one of a number of titles announced by the festival on Tuesday.
They included the world première of Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy, which stars Kristen Stewart, Diane Kruger and Laura Dern, and will screen as the closing-night film on Sept .16. Directed by Justin Kelly, it tells the twisted tale of a woman pretending to be an author who was in fact made up by her sister-in-law.
Another addition to the festival’s lineup is Paul Greengrass’s 22 July, which tells the story of the 2011 terror attacks in Norway that killed 77 people. This was another Netflix title that skipped Cannes; it will now debut at the Venice film festival a few days before having its North American première at TIFF.
Other titles in the announcement: Peterloo, from British director Mike Leigh, about an 1819 attack on a pro-democracy rally in Manchester; The Image Book, Jean-Luc Godard’s meditation on the history of motion pictures; The Wild Pear Tree, a talky, threehour drama from Turkish writerdirector Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Loro, Paolo Sorrentino’s biopic on former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; the world première of American Woman by Jake (son of Ridley) Scott; Jonah Hill’s directing debut, Mid90s; and Transit, German director Christian Petzold’s adaptation of Anna Seghers’s Second World War novel.
The films join such already announced high-profile titles as Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic First Man; High Life, the English-language debut of celebrated French director Claire Denis; Widows, from British director Steve McQueen; Jacques Audiard’s adaptation of The Sister Brothers; and Bradley Cooper’s remake of A Star is Born.
Canadian films added include The Lie by Toronto-born Veena Sud, who created the recent Netflix series Seven Seconds.
The festival also unveiled the lineups for several others programs.
The auteur-filled Masters program includes Godard’s The Image Book, winner of the inaugural 2018 Special Palme d’Or at Cannes.
And the Contemporary World Cinema program has 47 titles from international filmmakers, including a strong presence from Latin America and Eastern Europe. Other highlights include: Nick Hamm’s John DeLorean ■ biopic Driven, starring Judy Greer and Jason Sudeikis
Hold the Dark by Jeremy Saulnier, ■ starring Alexander Skarsgård and Riley Keough
Tell it to the Bees by Annabel ■
Jankel, starring Anna Paquin and Holliday Grainger
Viper Club by Maryam Keshavarz, ■ starring Matt Bomer, Susan Sarandon and Edie Falco
More information on the festival can be found at tiff.net.