Toronto festival stays grounded with pancakes and bacon
Forget about best actor awards or controversies about favoritism.
The Toronto International Film Festival closing ceremony has a refreshingly ego-free feel to it.
“The Bang Bang Club” relives apartheid’s last days
TORONTO, Sept 18 (Reuters) – In the final years of
apartheid, four South African photojournalists went to
extraordinary lengths to capture the horrors of poverty and
violence in images that made international headlines.
“The Bang Bang Club,” which had its world premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival this week, documents how
they bore witness to the traumatic events of 1991 to 1994
leading to the end of white minority rule in South Africa.
Pride or insecurity at the Toronto festival? “I don’t know, you tell me”
If there’s one thing the (mostly local) media seems to do well at the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s pestering filmmakers and stars with questions about Canada, Toronto, and the festival.
Call it the Sally Field complex.
There have been some lovely and flattering comments, of course — this is a film festival, after all. But what happens when the media doesn’t get the answer they want? They’re nothing if not persistent. Undaunted. Like a dog with a bone.
It’s Midnight Madness at Toronto film festival when the fat lady raps
Forget the weighty films about serious subjects in gorgeous settings by award-winning directors that incorporate a healthy dash of subtitles. The Toronto International Film Festival is near-bursting with those.
What some festival goers live for every year are over-the-top films that celebrate the ridiculous, the shocking and the thrilling. Films like “The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman”.
MDS says outlook uncertain as isotope market shifts
TORONTO, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Canada’s MDS Nordion (MDS.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz),
one of the world’s largest suppliers of medical isotopes, said
on Wednesday that market demand has become uncertain following
the shutdown of a key isotope-producing nuclear reactor that
forced MDS’s customers to diversify supply.
MDS Nordion’s nuclear imaging and radiotherapy segment took
a severe hit after the Atomic Energy of Canada’s Chalk River
nuclear reactor in Ontario was shut down in May 2009 due to
safety concerns. The reactor resumed operations last month.
Casey’s may talk to Couche-Tard if it raises bid
TORONTO, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Casey’s General Stores
(CASY.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday it might agree to talks with
Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATDb.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) if the Canadian company
would raise its $38.50-a-share takeover offer for the U.S.
convenience store operator.
“We are, of course, willing to extend to an interested
party the opportunity for discussions regarding a potential
consensual transaction, provided that the starting point for
such discussions is acceptable,” Casey’s said.
What’s next for James Franco and Danny Boyle?
With Danny Boyle’s new film “127 Hours” already garnering early buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival, what’s next for the Oscar-winning director and his prolific and busy star, James Franco?
Franco, who strolled into an interview on Sunday with photocopied pages of course reading material on early film history (he started a Ph.D program at Yale University this fall in English and film studies), told Reuters he will be directing a new project: “I’m developing something with Fox Searchlight, which will probably be shot next summer.”
Clint Eastwood surprises again with “Hereafter”
TORONTO (Reuters) – After 50 years in the movie business, Clint Eastwood is nothing if not unexpected.
But his much-anticipated supernatural new movie “Hereafter” about near death experiences is a dramatic departure from his intimate 2004 Oscar winner “Million Dollar Baby” or the actor’s grumpy widower in “Gran Torino.”
Boyle, Franco challenged in survival film “127 Hours”
TORONTO (Reuters) – How do you make a compelling film when your lead character is trapped by a boulder and unable to move for most of the story?
Director Danny Boyle, coming off the success of the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”, rose to the challenge with his fact-based feature, “127 Hours”, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this week.
Rainn Wilson reigns in Ebert’s Toronto twitter showdown
Who knew Dwight Kurt Schrute III could sell paper and tweet with Internet wit and humor, too?
At the Toronto International Film Festival’s Filmmaker’s Lounge on Saturday, Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute of “The Office”) out-tweeted four other film industry panelists — hard-core tweeters all — in a “Twitter Showdown” hosted by MTV’s Dan Levy.
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