New films by Paul Haggis, Sean Penn and actor Stuart Townsend were added yesterday to the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival lineup.

Each will be a Special Presentation, along with significant titles from five other directors, including an outlaw western starring Brad Pitt as Jesse James.

Canadian writer-director Haggis, who has been nominated for five Oscars, winning two, since he presented Crash at the 2005 Toronto filmfest, returns with a drama. In the Valley of Elah tells the story of a U.S. soldier who goes missing after returning from action in Iraq. Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon co-star as the youth's parents, while Charlize Theron is featured as a police detective.

Theron is also in the cast of her actor-boyfriend Townsend's directorial debut, Battle in Seattle. She co-stars with Andre Benjamin, Woody Harrelson, Joshua Jackson, Ray Liotta and hot-head Michelle Rodriguez in a recreation of the 1999 protests ignited by a meeting of the World Trade Organization.

Penn's new film as director is Into the Wild, based on Jon Krakauer's true-life book about a young man who shucks off the trappings of civilization and goes to live in the Alaska wilderness. Emile Hirsch stars as Christopher McCandless.

The Pitt film is Andrew Dominik's character study, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Co-starring are Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell and Mary-Louise Parker.

Another star-studded addition is Todd Haynes' unique Bob Dylan drama I'm Not There. Each of Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw (from Perfume) and Marcus Carl Franklin plays a "Dylanesque" character in one of the separate stories woven together for the film.

The other Special Presentations announced yesterday are: Joe Wight's Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy (Amin's doctor in The Last King of Scotland); Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, starring Nicole Kidman, Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh; and Tamara Jenkins' The Savages, starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Earlier this week, the festival also announced entries for its innovative Sprockets Family Zone series for children, as well as eight gonzo titles for the Midnight Madness program, which is so not for kids.

Sprockets, the separate festival that celebrated its 10th anniversary in the spring, now contributes to its parent festival. Among the highlights is the American animation, Terra, the directorial debut of Canadian artist-filmmaker Aristomenis Tsirbas. It's a science-fiction adventure story built around an alien heroine voiced by Evan Rachel Wood. It will play as an afternoon Gala.

Among films that will play in the Sprockets Family Zone series are two other animated features and three live action films. Sprockets, the brainchild of programmer Jane Schoettle, tries to expand the horizons of children who appreciate cinema.

So it is no surprise to see fare such as Thai co-directors Pantham Thongsang and Somkiat Vithuranit's doggie drama, Mid Road Gang. It tells the story of six strays displaced when their slum is cleared. They hear about "a canine heaven" called Dogtopia and set out to find it; trouble is, a 10-lane superhighway is in the way.

The film will screen twice, once in Thai with subtitles for older children and their parents; a second time with a live reader who will call out the subtitles for young viewers. This will happen with several of the Sprockets presentations.

Midnight Madness, meanwhile, has scored a biggie. George Romero is bringing his new indie zombie film, George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead.

Other extreme fare includes genre fare from Japan, Hong Kong and China, Britain and France. Legendary horrormeister Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) offers his latest, the macabre Stuck, a Canada-U.S. co-production starring Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari.