The 51st edition of the Toronto film festival has announced its lineup, featuring world premieres of films led by Helen Mirren, Seth Rogen and Chris Rock. The September festival, which follows Venice, has historically hosted Oscar-winning films such as Green Book, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Still Alice, Dallas Buyers Club and Silver Linings Playbook.
Helen Mirren portrays Patricia Highsmith in A Talent for Murder
Mirren will play the acclaimed author Patricia Highsmith in A Talent for Murder, a thriller directed by Anton Corbijn (Control, A Most Wanted Man). The film stars recent Tony-winner Alden Ehrenreich as a literary agent sent to Switzerland to persuade Highsmith to write one more Ripley novel.
Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick star in Babies
Rogen, who attended last year's festival with Good Fortune, teams up with Anna Kendrick in Babies, a comedy drama written and directed by his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen. The film also features Issa Rae, Kate Berlant and Sharon Stone, centering on a childless couple forced into parenting when their divorced friend moves in with her three-year-old.
Chris Rock returns with Misty Green
Rock writes, directs and stars in the Hollywood-set comedy Misty Green, which premieres at Toronto. The A24 film focuses on a director offering a comeback opportunity to an actor whose career has been derailed by vices. The cast includes Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick and British actor Rosalind Eleazar in the lead role.
Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky about Stallone's Oscar-winning film
The festival will also premiere I Play Rocky, a drama about the making of Sylvester Stallone's Oscar-winning triumph. Directed by Peter Farrelly, whose Green Book won best picture after a Toronto premiere, the film stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone.
Courteney Cox's Evil Genius based on true crime docuseries
Courteney Cox's second directorial effort, Evil Genius, will debut at Toronto. The crime thriller is based on a true crime docuseries about the so-called “pizza bomber” Brian Wells, starring Patricia Arquette and David Harbour. Cox described the project: “It’s stranger than fiction. At moments darkly funny and yet deeply emotional. A story about love, loneliness, manipulation and the people on the fringes who get pulled into something much bigger than themselves.”
Rebel Wilson's Girl Group and other premieres
After legal issues affected her first directorial film, Rebel Wilson returns with Girl Group, starring Wilson as a singer kicked off her own group's reunion tour who stages a comeback by attaching herself to a younger teen group. The cast includes Jennifer Coolidge, Sheridan Smith, Melanie C and Nicole Scherzinger.
John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) brings Onwards and Sideways, starring Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans as two people receiving a Parkinson's diagnosis on the same day. Other premieres include the comedy thriller Everybody Wants to Fuck Me starring Taron Egerton about modern dating, the prison-set drama The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd starring Amanda Seyfried, supernatural drama Faith starring James McAvoy and Erin Doherty, Takashi Miike's Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo with Lily James, the coming-of-age drama The Julia Set starring Chase Infiniti, Wayne Wang's Diary of a Mad Old Man, and Up Against It, a Trudie Styler-directed romcom led by Antonio Banderas.
Previously announced premieres and last year's success
Previously announced premieres include the romance Love of Your Life starring Margaret Qualley, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Aaron Pierre; a big-screen adaptation of the stage drama Prima Facie starring Cynthia Erivo; revenge thriller Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother led by Mahershala Ali; and Being Heumann, the new film from Coda director Sian Heder.
Last year's Toronto saw the premiere of the horror Obsession, which became the highest-grossing festival acquisition ever with $442 million worldwide. This year's festival runs from 10 to 20 September.
