Not only is it 50 years of James Bond in 2012, but it's also the golden anniversary of the New York Film Festival. And today they've announced which film will be closing off their festivities in October.
Robert Zemeckis' drama "Flight" will be the last hurrah at the 17-day long New York Film Festival. The return to live action drama by Robert Zemeckis, with nary a mo-cap suit in sight, stars Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot, who miraculously crash lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly every passenger on board. Although he is immediately acclaimed as a hero, the legal, moral and ethical aspects of Whip’s behavior before and after the accident are much more ambiguous than initially meet the public eye. A pretty solid supporting cast are lined up for this as well, with John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Melissa Leo, Bruce Greenwood and Kelly Reilly all along for the ride.
Of course, the question now is whether or not this will factor into the awards season race. All we'll say is that last year, Harvey Weinstein premiered "My Week With Marilyn" at NYFF and managed to pull out nominations for Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh. And Paramount will be hoping to get some Oscar momentum by making their world premiere of the movie here.
"Flight" is prepped for takeoff on November 2nd while NYFF runs from September 28th to October 14th.