You can’t have it all, Toronto. While the Canadian festival unveiled a slate last week that seemed to include every hot title you could think of left in 2013, today organizers of the New York Film Festival revealed that there’s still much more to come, and they’ll have their own big highlights that’ll get cinephiles looking at the cost of flights.
And top of the list is Paul Greengrass‘ “Captain Phillips,” which will have its world premiere as the Opening Night Gala selection at the 51st New York Film Festival. Based on a true story, Tom Hanks takes the titular lead role as the captain who gave himself up to Somali pirates in exchange for the safety of his crew after his boat was attacked. ” ‘Captain Phillips’ is a riveting experience,” said NYFF Director of Programming and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said about the movie. “At this point in his working life, Paul Greengrass has become a master of immersive reality-based narratives set along geopolitical fault lines – in this case, the 2009 seizure of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship by four Somali pirates. I’m excited that this tough, tense, real-life thriller, capped by the remarkable performances of Tom Hanks and four brilliant first-time Somali actors [Barkhad Abdi, Faysal Ahmed, Barkhad Abdirahman and Mahat M. Ali], is opening the 51st edition of the festival.”
Certainly, the first trailer promised something of a white-knuckle flick, and some new pics and posters for the movie offer a further peek at what could be one of the bigger thrillers this fall. NYFF kicks off on September 27th and “Captain Phillips” opens on October 11th.
