Early Lineup For TIFF 2012 Announced, Features Films From Malick, Affleck And Even Joss Whedon

While it is purely blockbuster season, 2012’s fall film festival slate has kick-started and with one hell of a bang, thanks to our neighbors up north.

The first part of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival has been announced, and it may very well be one of the best lineups in a very, very, very long time. Opening the festival will be Rian Johnson’s new action thriller Looper, starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Quite an intriguing way to get into a huge festival, Looper joins Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder, Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep, the sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas and David O. Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook as some of this year’s biggest name projects finding their debut.

Cannes will be seeing a few films make the jump across the pond in the form of No, Lore, Rust and Bone, Reality and The Hunt looking to make a splash on this side of the world. Toss in some other bigger profile projects like The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and the Kristen Wiig comedy Imogene, and it’s quite a collection of projects to call a start to what is going to be one hell of a festival.

However, one of the most intriguing films announced comes to us from none other than Joss Whedon. While in post-production on The Avengers, the director shot a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and those attending TIFF 2012 will have the chance to be the first in the world to view this oddly intriguing project.

Hell, even Costa-Gavras will have a new film debuting. Here’s the full lineup, so go ahead and bask in one of the greatest collections of films you could ever imagine:

World Premieres
“Looper” (Rian Johnson) (Opening Film)
“Cloud Atlas” (The Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer)
“Argo” (Ben Affleck)
“The Silver Linings Playbook” (David O Russell)
“Love, Marilyn” (Liz Garbus)
“Free Angela And All Political Prisoners” (Shola Lynch)
“The Place Beyond The Pines” (Derek Cianfrance)
“Midnight’s Children” (Deepa Mehta)
“Hyde Park On Hudson” (Roger Michell)
“Great Expectations” (Mike Newell)
“Inescapable” (Rubba Nadda)
“Twice Born” (Sergio Castellitto)
“English Vinglish” (Gauri Shinde)
“The Perks Of Being A Wallflower” (Stephen Chbosky)
“Thanks For Sharing” (Stuart Blumberg)
“End Of Watch” (David Ayer)
“Imogene” (Robert Puccini and Shari Springer Berman)
“A Late Quartet” (Yaron Zilberman)
“Much Ado About Nothing” (Joss Whedon)
“Frances Ha” (Noah Baumbach)
“The Time Being” (Nenad Cicin-Sain)
“Writers” (Josh Boone)
“At Any Price” (Ramin Bahrani)
“Venus And Serena” (Maiken Baird)
“Byzantium” (Neil Jordan)
“Quartet” (Dustin Hoffman)
“Ginger And Rosa” (Sally Potter)
“A Liar’s Autobiography” (Ben Timlett, Bill JOnes, Jeff Simpson)
“Foxfire” (Laurnet Cantet)
“In The House” (Francois Ozon)
“The Impossible” (JA Bayona
“Hannah Arendt (Margarethe Von Trotta)
“Mr. Pip” (Andrew Adamson)
“Capital” (Costa-Gavras”
“The Attack” (Ziad Doueriri)
“Zaytoun” (Eran Riklis)
“The Deep” (Baltasar Kormakur)
“Dreams For Sale (Nishikawa Miwa)
“The Last Supper” (Lu Chuan)

International/North American Premieres
“To The Wonder” (Terrence Malick)
“Anna Karenina” (Joe Wright)
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” (Mira Nair)
“The Company You Keep” (Robert Redford)
“Jayne Mansfield’s Car” (Billy Bob Thornton)
“A Royal Affair” (Nikolai Arcel)
“Dangerous Liasons” (Hur Ji-Ho)
“Thermae Romae” (Hideki Takeuchi)
“Caught IN THe Web” (Chen Kaige)
“Dormant Beauty” (Marco Belloccchio)
“Everybody Has A Plan” (Ana Piterbarg) w/Viggo Mortensen
“Kon-Tiki” (Espen Sandberg
“Reality” (Matteo Garrone)
“A Few Hours Of Spring” (Stephan Brize)
“The Hunt” (Thomas Vintenberg)
“The Iceman” (Ariel Vromen)
“Lore” (Cate Shortland)
“No” (Pablo Larrain)
“OUtrage Beyond” (Takeshi Kitano)
“Rust And Bone” (Jacques Audiard)
“The Sapphires” (Wayne Blair)
“Tai Chi O” (Stephen Fung)