It's a lead good enough to steal (and from a press release no less) so I'm just going to go ahead and steal it.
"A superhero, a samurai, gun runners, vampire hunters and" - wait for it - "hosers stalk the night during the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness programme. [This] year's line-up of feature premieres delivers the thrills and chills that devoted audiences have come to expect and love from Midnight Madness."
No lie that. Indeed some of the films planned for Midnight Madness - from directors like horror master John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) and actors as diverse as Halifax-born Ellen Page, Woody Harrelson, Josh Hartnett, Canuck Hayden Christensen and Kevin Bacon - guarantee this is going to be a very memorable year.
As first reported at Hollywood North, the sequel to 2002's near-genius cult comedy classic Fubar II takes opening night honours. Once again, audiences can chuckle along with headbangers Terry and Dean as they quest for less talk, more rock, yummier beers a more meaningful life, this time in the wilds of Alberta. Just give'r eh? Trailer below.
But hosers are only part of the equation. As alluded to in that rockin' good above-written lead, other gems include the promisingly titled Stake Land: "In the aftermath of a vampire epidemic, a teen is taken in by a grizzled vampire hunter on a roadtrip through a post-apocalyptic America, battling both the bloodsuckers and a fundamentalist militia that interprets the plague as the Lord's work."
And then there is director James Gunn's SUPER: "After his wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon), a frustrated husband (Rainn Wilson) decides he will win her back as Crimson Bolt, a costumed vigilante armed with a monkey wrench. His actions bring him an admirer, and overeager comic store clerk (Ellen Page) who wants to be his sidekick."
Check out The Ward from director John Carpenter: "The acclaimed director makes his long-awaited return to the screen with a thriller about a young woman (Amber Heard) in a 1960s mental institution who becomes terrorized by malevolent unseen forces."
Finally (for me at least; there is a total of nice Midnight Madness films slated), there is Bunraku: "In a world with no guns, a mysterious drifter (Josh Hartnett pictured above with Woody Harrelson), a young samurai and a bartender plot revenge against a ruthless leader and his army of thugs, headed by nine diverse and deadly assassins."
Mmmm, sounds like something Tarantino would direct - but no, it belongs to Guy Moshe.
Anyhoo, the Midnight Madness package can be had for $157 ($100 students and seniors) via TIFF.
In other breaking TIFF news, the list of celebrity attendees has been announced - keep eyes peeled for Nicole Kidman, Clint Eastwood, Megan Fox, Natalie Portman, Robert De Niro, Ryan Gosling, Zack Galifianakis, Keanu Reeves, Clive Owen, Javier Bardem, Jon Hamm (mmm Jon Hamm!) and Robert Redford among others.
Also, the Mavericks series at TIFF this year has a great lineup of celebrity interviews.
Highlights include Edward Norton interviewing Bruce Springsteen about the doc The Promise, chronicling the making of Darkness of the Edge of Town (premiering at TIFF); Michael Moore going head-to-head with guerilla filmmakers Ken Loach and Paul Laverty; and Canada AM host Seamus O'Regan chatting up Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose feature directorial debut, Jack Goes Boating, also premieres at TIFF.
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