25/07/2012 - New films by Joe Wright, Neil Jordan and Mike Newell in selection

In keeping with the recent practice of selecting a Hollywood film as the opener, Rian Johnson’s Looper (photo) will take pride of place at the Toronto International Film Festival (September 6 – 16). However there is a strong selection of British cinema in the galas announced.

Great Expectations [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Mike Newell’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, starring Holliday Grainger, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine will enjoy its world premiere in Toronto. Another world premiere for another British veteran is Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] where in June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a crucial weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson on the eve of war with Germany.

Deepa Mehta’s Canada/UK coproduction Midnight’s Children, based on Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize winning novel will also have its world premiere at the festival. Another adaptation of a masterwork, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, based on Leo Tolstoy’s epic, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law will have its international premiere. Making its North American premiere will be Ramin Bahrani’s US/UK production At Any Price, set in the competitive world of modern agriculture. Neil Jordan’s Byzantium, starring Gemma Arterton, Sam Riley and Saoirse Ronan is another world premiere as is Sally Potter’s Ginger And Rosa.

And Canadian Monty Python fans will flock to the world premiere of A Liar’s Autobiography — The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman by Ben Timlett, Bill Jones and Jeff Simpson.