Samuel L. Jackson attends the 2007 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles, California June 3, 2007.[Reuters]

 

The Toronto International Film Festival on Wednesday unveiled its most Hollywood-friendly lineup in years, capped off with new titles from Renny Harlin, Paul Schrader and Kevin Branagh.

Toronto (September 6-15) boasts no official competition. But the Hollywood contingent booked for the twice-nightly gala screenings at Roy Thomson Hall looks set to turn the high-profile venue into an industry shindig.

Among the six new gala titles are Harlin's "Cleaner," a thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson as a cop-turned-street cleaner; the Richard Attenborough-directed love story "Closing the Ring," starring Shirley MacLaine, Mischa Barton and Neve Campbell; and Schrader's "The Walker," starring Woody Harrelson and Lauren Bacall.

Also joining the Roy Thomson Hall party are Branagh's Michael Caine-Jude Law starrer "Sleuth" and Robin Swicord's "The Jane Austen Book Club," starring Jimmy Smits, Amy Brenneman and Maria Bello.

Also booked for a gala is French director Alain Corneau's fugitive drama "Le Deuxieme Souffle," starring Daniel Auteuil and Monica Bellucci.

Those titles join such earlier Roy Thomson Hall entries as Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe," Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream," Tony Gilroy's "Michael Clayton," Gavin Hood's "Rendition," Terry George's "Reservation Road" and Aristomenis Tsirbas' "Terra."

Toronto, which in recent years has stepped up efforts to make its festival more Hollywood friendly, also has included 28 U.S.-produced films in its 50-strong Special Presentations sidebar.

The latest Special Presentations titles include the Michael Moore documentary "Captain Mike Across America," Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann's "Bill," Gillian Armstrong's "Death Defying Acts" and Jason Reitman's "Juno," the follow-up to "Thank You for Smoking," which was a Toronto festival breakout hit two years ago.

Toronto will unspool 352 films, including 101 world premieres and 108 North American premieres. In addition, 71 of the films are directorial debuts.

The festival has its usual complement of films about war and political protest that, according to festival co-director Noah Cowan, reflect a "seriousness of purpose and a real sense of drive to tell political stories."

"In many ways, the body of films recalls the American independent movie of the 1970s," he added.

American auteur films including Alan Ball's "Nothing Is Private," a drama about sexual politics and bigotry set against the backdrop of the 1991 Gulf War, Brian De Palma's war drama "Redacted" and Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" reflect anti-war "provocation," Cowan said.

Toronto's lineup also includes a surprising number of crime-themed dramas, including Alexi Tan's "Blood Brothers," a drama about three friends taking on a life of big-city crime; Comeau's "Le Deuxieme Souffle"; Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," a thriller about a botched robbery; Brad Furman's "The Take," about the aftermath of an armored car heist; and Ira Sachs' "Married Life," a drama about a husband who kills his wife to spare her the shame of divorce.

Cowan said that the crime-themed movies this year recall the '70s-era vigilante movies that coincided with Vietnam.

"When the U.S. is faced with wars that are frustrating in their inability to be totally understood, that comes out in their films," Toronto's top programprogrammerr said.

"Just as the 1970s, there's films that reflect paranoia about government and police corruption and which come from a frustration and rage about what's happening in the world," he added.