Yep, TIFF is continuing to dazzle with its slate of films as it’s now just weeks before things in Toronto get underway. And as always, a few more peeks at the movies coming over the horizon are here, so let’s jump right in…
You would think that the sensibilities of John Turturro and Woody Allen would mesh and the pair would have worked together more frequently by this point. But until now, their working relationship consisted of Turturro’s small part in “Hannah & Her Sisters” and both men popping up in “Company Men.” But now, the tables are turned with Turturro as the writer/star/director and Allen as the actor, with the latter making a rare appearance in front of the camera in a picture that’s not his own in “Fading Gigolo.” And it seems like a project perfectly suited for his talents. Vanessa Paradis, Liev Schreiber, Sharon Stone and Sofia Vergara round out the cast. Here’s the synopsis:
Woody Allen plays as bookseller-turned-pimp to John Turturro’s middle-aged neophyte hustler, in actor-writer-director Turturro’s inspired left-field comedy. The premise is as inspired as it is absurd, and Turturro carries it off with his own affecting and surprisingly romantic vision of New York City.
Meanwhile, James Franco continues to get literary. This spring, he dropped his William Faulkner adaptation “As I Lay Dying” in Cannes, and this fall, he goes to Venice and Toronto with the Cormac McCarthy flick “Child Of God.” You gotta admire his ambition, if anything. Franco stars alongside Scott Haze, Tim Blake Nelson and Jim Parrack. Here’s the synopsis:
Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee in the 1960s, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as “a child of God much like yourself perhaps.” Ballard’s life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Deprived of both his parents and a home, and with few other ties, Ballard descends to the level of a cave dweller, falling deeper into crime and degradation.
No distribution for either pic, but as always, things will change after TIFF.
