TORONTO '08 | "Destiny" To Close Fest, "Brothers Bloom," "Wrestler," "Orson Welles" Among Announced

The 33rd Toronto International Film Festival will close on September 13 with the North American premiere of Charles Martin Smith's "Stone of Destiny." Based on a true story about four Glasgow University students who plotted to retrieve the 'Stone of Destiny,' the film stars Robert Carlyle, Billy Boyd and Brenda Fricker. "We're thrilled to have 'Stone of Destiny' close this year's Festival," says Cameron Bailey, co-director of the festival, in a statement. "This is a movie that wills you over with its charm, its sense of mischief and its pure Scottishness." The festival also announced new additions to its Special Presentations program, including work by Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Guillermo Arriaga, Claire Denis and Michael Winterbottom.

The festival, which September 4-13, 2009, announced twenty new Special Presentations. They include many foreign-language titles, such as the World Premieres of Francois Dupeyron's "Aide-toi le ciel t'aidera," Rithy Panh's "Un Barrage Contre le Pacifique," Bruno Barreto's "Last Stop 174," and Max Faerberboeck's "A Woman in Berlin," the International Premieres of Ferzan Ozpetek's "A Perfect Day" and Martin Provost's "Seraphine," and the North American Premieres of Claire Denis's "35 Rhums" and Barbet Schroeder's "Inju, la bete dans l'ombre." The program will additionally include Christophe Barratier's "Faubourg 36," which premieres at Montreal's World Film Festival next week.

The English-language presence in the program sees some highly anticipated World and North American Premieres. Rian Johnson's follow-up to "Brick," "The Brothers Bloom," Stephan Elliot's "Easy Virtue," starring Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas, Michael Winterbottom's "Genova," also starring Firth, John Crowley's "Is There Anybody There?," Stephen Belber's Jennifer Aniston-starrer "Management," Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," Kevin Smith's Seth Rogen comedy, "Zach and Miri Make a Porno," and Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles," starring Zac Efron and Claire Danes, will all have their World Premieres in Toronto.




North American Premieres include Guillermo Arriaga's "The Burning Plan," starring Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron, "Che: Part One" and "Che: Part Two," from Steven Soderbergh, Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" and Darren Aronofsky's Mickey Rourke starrer, "The Wrestler," as well as the Canadian Premiere of Marc Abraham's "Flash of Genuis," starring Greg Kinnear.