Venice continues to enrich its opening day world premiere offerings, adding Robert Rodriguez’s Machete as a world premiere as the opening night Midnight film at the end of opening day.

The Biennale made the announcement today, while the complete official line up will be announced tomorrow (Thursday).

With Machete, Rodriguez returns with the action genre he is famous for, this time set partly in the US-Mexico boarder state of Texas. The film sees Machete Cortez, an ex-federale, flee to Texas after being left for dead by a notorious drug kingpin. Forced to be on the lam, Machete finds himself increasingly entangled in corruption and conspiracy. With Mexico, immigration and the drug wars a daily front page story in the US – Machete is likely to draw ample buzz with its cast of Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan and Robert De Niro among other top names, in advance of its Sept 3 US opening.

The film is the third high profile to screen on Venice’s opening day in what is being expected to be a strong edition.

The world premiere of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan will kick off the of the 67th edition of the Venice Film Festival in competition. Andrew Lau’s Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zen, featuring the character first brought to the screen by Bruce Lee (the film is being screened on the 70th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s birth), will be screened on opening day after Black Swan, out of competition.

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