Drake to introduce TIFF movie about police killing
Drake will be on hand for the TIFF opening-night Canadian premiere of Monsters and Men, a tale about police killing a Black man and the consequences for his community, the Toronto International Film Festival announced Thursday.
Toronto’s rap star was an executive producer of the movie, which stars BlacKkKlansman’s John David Washington and is the feature-film directing debut by writer Reinaldo Marcus Green.
The festival describes the film as a “provocative portrait of a community responding to crisis” about police violence and “systemic corruption.”
Drake will introduce the film (which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival) to kick off the festival on Thursday, Sept. 6 at the Bell Lightbox and will also join the cast for what the fest describes only as a “unique screening experience.”
The music superstar has just concluded a two-night stand at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on his tour with Migos.
The film’s co-stars Anthony Ramos (from the original Broadway cast of Hamilton and Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It) and Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Other special TIFF events include an onstage live read of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club with Jason Reitman.
Reitman, who created the Live Read in 2011, will announce the cast for the event in the coming weeks on his Instagram account.
Meanwhile, director Damien Chazelle will introduce his film First Man, starring Ryan Gosling, in IMAX on Sept. 9 at Ontario Place Cinesphere.
Meanwhile, director Dean DeBlois and producer Brad Lewis will give an exclusive sneak preview of DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
TIFF has also announced this year’s In Conversation With … lineup of onstage discussions with stars who are in films at the fest.
They include What They Had star Hilary Swank, Green Book star Mahershala Ali, and Maggie Gyllenhaal of The Kindergarten Teacher.