‘Magnificent Seven’ to open Toronto fest
This year’s lineup features buzzy, diverse films
LOS ANGELES, July 27, (Agencies): Lupita Nyong’o, Justin Timberlake, Denzel Washington and Emma Stone are just a few of the stars with films headed to the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
The Toronto festival is considered a launching pad to Hollywood’s awards season, and this year features a buzzy and diverse lineup of both world premieres and some of the best offerings from other festivals that in the past have shaped the Oscar conversation. Last year’s best picture winner, “Spotlight,” premiered at the festival.
Kicking things off on Sept 8 is the world premiere of Antoine Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven,” starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt in a remake of the classic John Sturges film (which was also, incidentally, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai”).
Festival CEO and Director Piers Handling and Artistic Director Cameron Bailey announced 60-some galas and special presentations Tuesday in a press conference.
Some of the most high-profile premieres include director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi drama “Arrival,” with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, and Peter Berg’s disaster pic “Deepwater Horizon,” starring Mark Wahlberg. Rob Reiner’s presidential biopic “LBJ,” starring Woody Harrelson will also debut at the festival.
The lineup also includes a murderer’s row of favorites from the year’s festivals, including Nate Parker’s slave rebellion drama “The Birth of a Nation,” which won the top prize at the Sundance Film Festival and is considered an early Oscar contender, as is Jeff Nichols’ interracial romance/ civil rights drama “Loving,” with Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, which premiered
aftermath of a smallpox pandemic. The player, who is an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division, commonly referred to as simply “The Division,” is tasked with helping to rebuild the Division’s at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cannes darlings “American Honey,” starring Shia LaBeouf, and Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson,” starring Adam Driver, will play the festival too.
Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion seemed to be paramount among the 68 films announced, with features like Mira Nair’s chess tale “The Queen of Katwe” with Lupita Nyong’o, Vikram Gandhi’s Barack Obama at Columbia film “Barry,” and “Belle” director Amma Asante’s “A United Kingdom,” starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike.
“Whiplash” director Damien Chazelle’s musical romance “La La Land” starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a pair Los Angeles dreamers will also make a stop at Toronto after opening at the Venice Film Festival a few weeks earlier.
The Miles Teller boxing drama “Bleed for This” from director Ben Younger will play, as will designer Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” with Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. Rooney Mara has a few films at TIFF as well, including Gareth Davis’s “Lion,” based on Saroo Brierley’s memoir of finding his birthmother, which stars Dev Patel, and Jim Sheridan’s “The Secret Scripture.”
Christopher Guest will premiere the comedy “Mascots,” starring Fred Willard, Parker Posey and many of his mockumentary regulars.
There are a handful of music pics, too, including Jonathan Demme’s Justin Timberlake concert film “JT + The Tennessee Kids,” Nick Cannon’s “King of the Dancehall,” and “The Rolling Stones Ole? Ole? Ole?!: A Trip Across Latin America” from director Paul Dugdale.
The coming of age comedy/drama “The Edge of Seventeen,” starring
operations in Manhattan, investigating the nature of the outbreak and combating criminal activity in its wake. (RTRS)
NASHVILLE, Tenn.:
Country duo Florida Hailee Steinfeld as an awkward high school student from first-time director Kelly Fremon Craig will close out the festival, which runs through Sept 18. TIFF will continue announcing films over the next few weeks.
“I can’t think of a better place or crowd for the film’s world premiere,” Fuqua said in a brief video statement that accompanied a press conference announcing the lineup.
Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, and Mira Nair are just a few of the notable directors who will be bringing their latest films north of the border. Demme will offer up “JT and the Tennessee Kids,” which promises to pull back the curtain on Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience World Tour. The “Silence of the Lambs” filmmaker has previously shot documentaries about musicians such as the Talking Heads and Neil Young. Stone will be on hand with another piece of political provocation, “Snowden,” a look at NSA leaker Edward Snowden that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and was originally supposed to open last spring. Nair is fielding “Queen of Katwe,” an inspirational drama about a chess prodigy that stars Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo.
Propel
One film that will likely draw a lot of interest from Oscar-ologists is “Lion,” a drama about a young man (Dev Patel) who reunites with his long-lost parents using Google Earth. The Weinstein Company, which has struggled at the box office of late and sat out last year’s best picture Oscar race for the first time since 2008, is hoping that the film will propel the studio back into the thick of things.
After setting off a bidding war at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for his screenplay, Tom Ford will debut
Georgia Line said they meant no disrespect to police when they requested that armed officers not be allowed backstage during music festivals on Friday and Saturday.
Kim Blevins, general manager for the “Nocturnal Animals.” The twisty story of a woman whose life begins to mirror the manuscript of her ex-husband’s first novel stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Though best known as a fashion designer, Ford impressed critics with “A Single Man,” his 2009 Oscar-nominated feature film directing debut.
Along with Ford, Damien Chazelle will try to prove that his initial brush with success wasn’t a fluke. The indie director turned heads in 2014 with “Whiplash,” his portrait of an ambitious drummer and an abusive instructor. He’s back at the festival with “La La Land,” a musical that will try to prove that Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling can hoof it with the best of them and carry a tune.
In past years, Oscar-winners or contenders such as “Spotlight,” “The Martian,” or “The Theory of Everything” have used Toronto to propel themselves forward in the race for awards glory and commercial success. The Canadian festival is seen as a muststop on most major awards campaigns.
However, even as the competition for gold statues intensifies, so too has the rivalry between festivals. To that end, Toronto has seen its prominence threatened by the Telluride Film Festival, which has the advantage of appearing earlier in the year, and boasts a more casual and relaxed vibe that some filmmakers find appealing. They’ve also lost out on several prominent fall releases to the New York Film Festival, which last year snagged the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” and also nabbed the debut of David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” in 2014.
At various points, Toronto brass have hit back at the competition, denying opening weekend slots to films that screened at other festivals.
Country Thunder Music Festival in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, said some people aired complaints on Facebook about the band’s request for no armed officers for their Friday set.
A sheriff in Jones County, Iowa, where Florida Georgia Line performed on Saturday, told Fox News that the duo made a similar request. The incident followed recent shootings of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas.
Florida Georgia Line said in a statement Tuesday it was “redundant” to use local authorities when security was already present, and added that “nothing is more important than our fans’ safety.” (AP)
LOS ANGELES:
Another Duggar is getting married.
Jinger Duggar announced her engagement to former professional soccer player Jeremy Vuolo in a video posted Tuesday promoting her new TLC reality show, “Counting On.”
The 22-year-old former “19 Kids and Counting” star calls Vuolo “the man of my dreams.” She said in a video posted last month that the two met in May 2015 and have been on a mission trip together.
Vuolo was a goalie at Hardwick College and Syracuse University before going on to play with the New York Red Bulls and the San Antonio Scorpions in the US and overseas in Finland. (AP)