TORONTO — Ryan Gosling, Johnny Depp, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Keira Knightley and Kristen Wiig are among the stars expected at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival.
The annual movie bonanza, which runs Sept. 6 to 16, will screen 372 films, including 146 world premieres.
Other celebs set to hit the red carpet next month include James Franco, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Colin Firth, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Jake Gyllenhaal and Adam Sandler.
TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey said it’s difficult to highlight just a few names from the long list considering how many A-listers are attending.
“They’re all ’gets,”’ he said with a laugh during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. “None of this is guaranteed and we’re excited to have all of them here.”
But he did share one name he was personally thrilled to hear announced.
“He’s a voice-over artist now but better known as a novelist — and his name is Salman Rushdie,” Bailey deadpanned.
“He does the narration for Deepa (Mehta’s) film ’Midnight’s Children’ so that’s a personal thrill, I have a lot of respect for him as an author.”
TIFF CEO Piers Handling said he’s pleased with the variety of stars attending, from young up-and-comers such as Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez, to European stars Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard, to Hollywood veterans Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave.
And festival attendees will also appreciate all the filmmakers that are coming, including Alex Gibney, Neil Jordan, Barry Levinson, David O. Russell and Joss Whedon, he added.
“In the eyes of many of the festival attendees the stars are the directors, because they’re really an auteur-driven group of cinema goers,” Handling said.
“So people like Michael Haneke, Marco Bellocchio, P.T Anderson, Sally Potter, Jacques Audiard, it’s a wonderful lineup of some of the great, great master filmmakers from around the world who will be here.”
The festival is set to open with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis time travel flick “Looper.”
More than 4,100 movies were submitted for consideration, up from 3,461 last year.
There will be plenty of homegrown fare as well, with 32 Canadian feature films and 47 shorts.
Also announced Tuesday was TIFF’s Mavericks program of screenings with post film Q&As. Among those to take part in discussion panels will be Javier Bardem, Jackie Chan, Depp and David Geffen.