Toronto Film Festival 2012: Films From Affleck, Redford, Malick Among the Lineup

Kicking things off with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis’ mind and time-bending action thriller Looper, the 2012 fest will feature films heavy on the star power, including Tom Hanks in Cloud Atlas; Bill Murray in Hyde Park on Hudson; Marion Cottilard in Rust and Bone; Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina; Jake Gyllenhaal in End of Watch; native Canuck Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond the Pines; Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper featured in Silver Linings Playbook; and Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Ruffalo in Thanks for Sharing, to name just a few of the big names. 

While there are quite a few anticipated projects being screened at TIFF (including The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Imogene, The Iceman, A Late Quartet, and Love, Marilyn) perhaps none more than the latest efforts from filmmakers Terrence Malick, Ben Affleck, David O. Russell, Mira Nair, Noah Baumbach, and Robert Redford. Redford, who knows a thing or two about the festival circuit, stars and directs Company You Keep, a political thriller about a young journalist (Shia LaBeouf) following the story of a wanted ex-radical activist (Redford). 

Malick is following up his Oscar-nominated 2011 masterpiece The Tree of Life with To The Wonder, a film about a man who reconnects with a woman from his hometown after his marriage falls apart, starring Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem, Rachel Weisz, and fellow festival filmmaker, Ben Affleck. Affleck (pictured) — whose hotly anticipated film Argo, based on the true-life story about a  CIA “exfiltration” in 1979 to get six Americans out of Tehran — leads an all-star cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Kyle Chandler, and John Goodman. 

The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival (you can check out the full lineup of movies at the event here) begins on September 6 and ends on September 16. 

Company You Keep Enlists Stanley Tucci, Chris Cooper 

[Photo credit: Warner Brothers]