TORONTO - From Brad Pitt to J.Lo, Viggo Mortensen and the Dixie Chicks, from bad boys Russell Crowe and Jude Law to babes Zhang Ziyi and Reese Witherspoon, the Toronto International Film Festival has got them all.
The confirmed guest list for the festival, which runs Sept. 7-16, also includes Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Pierce Brosnan, Marc Anthony, Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Sarah Polley, Anthony Hopkins, Ethan Hawke, Jessica Lange, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Liam Neeson, Penelope Cruz, Vince Vaughn, Tom Hanks, Carrie-Anne Moss, Christian Bale, Christian Slater, Christina Ricci, Emilio Estevez, Heath Ledger, Laura Linney, Peter O’Toole, Ed Harris, Tim Robbins, Spike Lee, Yoko Ono, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman and dozens of others.
Calling “the global star power” unprecedented in the festival’s 31 years because of the sheer volume of big names, co-director Noah Cowan yesterday joined with co-director Piers Handling to read off the guest list at the annual kick-off press conference.
In past years, Handling inspired giggles by rattling the names off in one long ramble, without taking a breath. Not this list. Not possible. Under the baking summer sun outside at Nathan Phillips Square, the co-directors tag-teamed and still took five minutes to run through it all.
Brad Pitt was the big surprise for the film Babel. Pitt missed Cannes because he was sequestered in Africa waiting for Angelina Jolie to give birth to daughter Shiloh. With Babel in Toronto, this gives Pitt a chance to join the red carpet parade for a film that is generating some of the best personal reviews he’s received in years.
Babel is set as a Gala at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 9 at Roy Thomson Hall. Simcoe St. will be closed south of King St.W. after 4 p.m. every day of the festival to clear the path for the two red carpet walk-ins at the Hall.
Jennifer Lopez will be at the festival with husband and co-star Marc Anthony for the world premiere of the salsa biopic El Cantante. It will play as a Special Presentation Sept. 12 at the Elgin Cinema. Fest officials are working with the city and the police to close part of Yonge St. for several of these Special Presentation screenings, including El Cantante, because of the pandemonium over a Johnny Depp appearance there last year.
The road closures have been negotiated both for safety reasons and, according to Cowan, “to make room for Torontonians to experience the red carpet.”
Crowe is coming to Toronto for the world premiere of Ridley Scott’s A Good Year, which was announced yesterday, as the final pieces in the Gala puzzle were laid out.
Crowe last worked with Scott on the Oscar-winner Gladiator. This time, Crowe plays a surly businessman whose life takes a sudden shift when he is obliged to look into the affairs of a struggling Provencal vineyard.
Handling also unveiled the official closing night Gala, the world premiere of Michael Apted’s Amazing Grace. This is an historical drama about a campaign to abolish slavery and end Britain’s role in the slave trade.
Albert Finney has major roles in both A Good Year and Amazing Grace. Ian Gruffudd leads the Amazing Grace cast, which also features international singing star Youssou N’Dour in his acting debut.
Guest lister Law is the headliner in yet another newly-announced Gala, Anthony Minghella’s Breaking And Entering, which co-stars Robin Wright Penn and Juliette Binoche, who are also slated to be here.
The other new Galas are Patrice Leconte’s Mon Meilleur Ami, Susanne Bier’s After The Wedding, Feng Xiaogang’s The Banquet, Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book and Douglas McGrath’s Infamous.
The McGrath film is based on George Plimpton’s In Cold Blood spin-off book, Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances And Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. Toby Jones plays Capote — the same role that earned Philip Seymour Hoffman the 2005 best actor Oscar — with Bullock as Harper Lee.
The Canadian star contingent is represented by Polley, Gordon Pinsent, Wendy Crewson, Don McKellar, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, as well as broadcaster Sook-Yin Lee, who stars in the explicit sex romp Shortbus, a bedroom role that caused consternation in boardrooms of the CBC. Name director Zacharias Kunuk, whose film, The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen, is the official opening night Gala.
Among the oddities on this year’s celebrity guest list is having both Brad Pitt and Vince Vaughan coming here, given their history with Jennifer Aniston. On a happier note, celebrity couples such as Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn are still together and both are coming. Then there is Spanish master Pedro Almodovar, who rarely travels overseas but has committed for the Gala presentation of Volver, the film that stars Penelope Cruz. Almodovar, who is openly gay, surprised reporters at Cannes by expressing his lust for Cruz.
The irony of the celebrity power at the Toronto filmfest is that it may overshadow the films the stars are here for. The films, Handling said yesterday with a worried look, “are the heart of the festival.”
This year’s filmfest will screen 352 films, including 261 features, from 61 countries.
