Canada: Buzz titles

All The Wrong Reasons

TIFF premiere

Dir Gia Milani

All The Wrong Reasons was one of Glee star Cory Monteith’s final films before his death in July. The comedy drama about four people struggling to get through a trauma also stars Kevin Zegers, Emily Hampshire and Karine Vanasse. Milani’s feature debut will have its world premiere in the Discovery strand of TIFF’s Canadian Features programme in what is likely to be an emotional launch. The film was made in participation with Telefilm Canada. Pacific Northwest Pictures will distribute in Canada.

Contact Myriad Pictures, info@myriadpictures.com

Enemy

TIFF premiere

Dir Denis Villeneuve

The Incendies director returns with Rhombus Media’s psychosexual thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a university lecturer who pursues his doppelganger. Enemy is one of two new Villeneuve films set to screen at TIFF, the other being Alcon’s crime thriller Prisoners, also starring Gyllenhaal. eOne will distribute Enemy in Canada.

Contact Pathé International, sales@patheinternational.com

The F Word

TIFF premiere

Dir Michael Dowse

Dowse and production company No Trace Camping reunite after the success of their Seann William Scott ice-hockey comedy Goon. The follow up is TIFF-bound special presentation The F Word, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan as youngsters who feel a spark of romance on their very first encounter but are forced by circumstances to make a go of it as friends. Also starring Rafe Spall, Amanda Crew, Megan Park and Adam Driver, the film is produced in association with the Irish Film Board. eOne is set to distribute in Canada and the UK.

Contact eOne Films International, cmickie@entonegroup.com

Henchmen

Pre-production

Dir Adam Wood

Bron Animation will commence production this autumn on CGI animation Henchmen, about low-ranking thugs who find themselves in over their heads when they unwittingly steal a super-villain’s ultimate weapon. Wood, a former Pixar animator, makes his feature directorial debut. Jay D Waxman wrote the screenplay.

Contact Bron Animation, contact@bronstudios.com

I’ll Follow You Down

Completed

Dir Richie Mehta

Mehta’s sci-fi fantasy centres on a physics student who discovers a clue that may lead to the whereabouts of his father, who disappeared when the boy was nine years old. The Telefilm Canada-backed feature, which stars Gillian Anderson, Haley Joel Osment, Rufus Sewell and Victor Garber, premiered at Fantasia in Montreal in July and is expected to open in Canada in late 2013 or early 2014. eOne will distribute in Canada, with XYZ Films handling US sales.

Contact Breakthrough Entertainment, mcordoni@breakthrough entertainment.com

Last Letter From Your Lover

Pre-production

Dir Patricia Rozema

Based on the novel by Jojo Moyes, The Film Farm’s adaptation centres on a young socialite who embarks on a love affair with the journalist assigned to write a profile about the woman’s husband, only for tragedy to tear them apart. Years later a young reporter uncovers their love. The cast is yet to be announced.

Contact The Film Farm, assistant@thefilmfarm.ca

Maps To The Stars

In production

Dir David Cronenberg

After the insular portrait of dysfunction that was Cosmopolis, Cronenberg reunites with Robert Pattinson on a broader canvas of emotional disfigurement. Currently half way through its shoot, the film centres on a Hollywood psychotherapist (John Cusack) and his family surrounded by a celebrity-obsessed culture. Mia Wasikowska, Julianne Moore, Olivia Williams and Sarah Gadon also star. Prospero Pictures and eOne are co-financing, with Prospero Pictures and SBS Productions producing. eOne will distribute in Canada, US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Contact eOne Films International, cmickie@entonegroup.com

Midnight Sun

Post-production

Dir Roger Spottiswoode

This family adventure from Mediamax, Original Pictures and Ecstasy in Canada and HD Productions in Italy centres on a young boy’s efforts to reunite an abandoned polar-bear cub with its mother in the northern Canadian wilderness. Dakota Goyo, Goran Visnjic and Kendra Timmins star. eOne will distribute in Canada.

Contact Hyde Park International, eric@hydeparkentertainment.com

Origin Of The World

Pre-production

Dir Kim Nguyen

Item 7’s forthcoming international co-production reunites the producers with French Canadian Nguyen, director of last season’s foreign-language Oscar nominee War Witch. Financing and casting are under way on Nguyen’s latest screenplay, which will be structured as a triptych and concerns the plight of women in India, the Middle East and North America. Item 7 is aiming for a first-quarter 2014 production start.

Contact Item 7, info@item7.ca

Queen Of The Night

Post-production

Dir Atom Egoyan

Egoyan, whose Devil’s Knot premieres at TIFF, co-wrote Queen Of The Night with David Fraser. Ryan Reynolds plays the father of an abducted child who believes his daughter may still be alive. Rosario Dawson and Scott Speedman also star in the Ego Film Arts and The Film Farm thriller, which is expected to open in 2014. eOne will distribute in Canada.

Contact eOne Films International, cmickie@entonegroup.com

The Right Kind Of Wrong

TIFF premiere

Dir Jeremiah S Chechik

Producer and Serendipity Point head Robert Lantos makes a rare foray into rom-coms with this TIFF entry about a failed writer (Ryan Kwanten) who meets the woman of his dreams, just as she is about to get married. Sara Canning, Catherine O’Hara and Will Sasso also star in the film, which will be distributed by eOne in Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Benelux. Serendipity Point represents US rights.

Contact WestEnd Films, info@westendfilms.com

Sarah Prefers To Run

TIFF premiere

Dir Chloé Robichaud

Robichaud was named by Telefilm Canada as one to watch in Cannes, where the drama about a young woman’s sexual awakening, starring Sophie Desmarais, Jean-Sébastien Courchesne and Genevieve Boivin-Roussy, premiered. Les Films De Seville opened the film in June in Quebec and it plays at TIFF in the Discovery section of Canadian Features.

Contact eOne Films International, cmickie@entonegroup.com

Tom At The Farm

TIFF premiere

Dir Xavier Dolan

Canadian actor-director Dolan returns to TIFF a year after screening Laurence Anyways. Tom At The Farm (Tom A La Ferme) follows a gay man who meets the family of his recently deceased lover, though they knew nothing of their son’s sexual orientation. MK2 Productions’ film stars Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy and Evelyne Brochu. eOne will distribute in Canada. Dolan is also wrapping up a lead role in the forthcoming Miraculum.

Contact MK2, www.mk2.com

Two Nights

Post-production

Dir Denys Arcand

Québécois Oscar winner Arcand (The Barbarian Invasions) usually makes a film every three to four years but has recently been at work on TV sitcom Adam & Eve. Two Nights (Deux Nuits) - his first feature since The Age Of Ignorance in 2007 - is a drama about an architect (Eric Bruneau), and his wife (Mélanie Thierry). Their lives are thrown into turmoil when he meets a younger woman (Marie-Josée Croze) at a convention. Cinémaginaire is producing, with eOne distributing in Canada.

Contact Cinémaginaire, info@cinemaginaire.com

What We All Long For

Pre-production

Dir Clark Johnson

Scheduled to shoot later this year or early 2014, Sienna Films’ drama takes place in Toronto in the hot summer of the 2002 football World Cup. The daughter of Vietnamese immigrants leads a hedonistic lifestyle until the man believed to be her long-lost brother re-enters her family’s life. The cast is yet to be announced.

Contact Sienna Films, juliasereny@siennafilms.com

White Slaves Of The Nookta

Pre-production

Dir Bruce Dowad

Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures head Shawn Williamson has lined up this historical epic about two crewmen on an 18th century British trading ship who are taken captive after a Pacific Coast First Nations community massacres their crew. The prisoners live with the Nookta for two years before escaping to recount their adventures on a tour of Europe. Williamson, who served as executive producer on TIFF entry Horns, has earmarked a spring 2014 shoot on Vancouver Island for the film, which is backed by Telefilm Canada.

Contact Brightlight Pictures, info@brightlightpictures.com