Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, George Clooney's Ides of March, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and Roman Polanski's Carnage lead perhaps the greatest line-up of the festival in years.
The line-up for the 2011 Venice Film Festival was unveiled a little earlier today and this year's edition looks particularly stacked on the English-language side of things with a large number of dramatic outputs from the U.K. and U.S. Dozens and dozens of high-intrigue fare are set to be premiering over the two week event which kicks off proceedings on August 31st with the George Clooney directed political thriller The Ides of March as an in-competition film. A trailer was released last night and you can see it HERE. The other big headliners include; Working Titles attempt to bring the classic John Le Carre novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to the big screen for the first time (though there was an amazing 70s t.v. series with Alec Guinness that this film will need to go to some quality to beat) has been on our radar every since its extraordinary cast was brought together which finds Gary Oldman in the leading role of George Smiley and a plethora of British character actors including Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch supports alongside John Hurt, Christian McKay, Kathy Burke, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones, Stephen McGraham and Simon McBurney. David Cronenberg's psychological drama A Dangerous Method, an adaptation of Christopher Hamptons 2002 dialogue heavy play A Talking Cure about close friends Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), the founding fathers of psychoanalysis and the Russian-Jewish beauty Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), a patient who came between them. Steve McQueen's Hunger follow-up Shame, a contemporary drama about a hopeless office worker and sex addict in New York which also stars Michael Fassbender in the leading role with support from Carey Mulligan. The first film from Roman Polanski since his prison ordeal with his stage adaptation of French playwright Yasmina Reza's Carnage featuring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly, a dark comedy about opposing family ideals. The U.S. in-competition side of things offers up some further intriguing possibilities from mostly previously under the radar fare as; Todd Solondzs Dark Horse about a romance that blossoms between two thirty-somethings in arrested development: an avid toy collector and a woman who is the dark horse of her family and stars Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow. The directorial debut of Michael Mann's daughter Ami Canaan Mann who clearly comes from the right gene pool!! Her movie Texas Killing Fields is a murder drama and stars Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chloe Moretz and Jessica Chastain. Bad Lieutenant helmer Abel Ferreras apocalyptic 4:44 Last Day On Earth which doesn't even have an IMDB rating yet. and William Friedkins adaptation of the late 80's Broadway hit Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch and carries the plotline; "When a debt puts a young man's life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance." Elsewhere, there's yet another Wuthering Heights movie to add to one of the screen's most adapted works as Fish Tank director Andrea Arnold delivers her follow-up, then there's Greek helmer Giorgos Lanthimoss follow-up to Dogtooth with the intriguing Alps and Chicken With Plums - the animated follow-up fromMarjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud after their wonderful Persepolis. In the out of competition section, the selections still hit a mighty punch with; Stephen Soderbergh's incredible looking Outbreak-esque virus thriller Contagion starring Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Laurence Fishburne. Madonna's movie W.E. about the royal abdication of King Edward VIII so he could marry an American divorcée Wallis Simpson - an ambitious effort which stars James D'Arcy as King Edward VIII and Andrea Riseborough as Wallis with Oscar Isaac and Abbie Cornish also featuring. The long awaited return of American Psycho director Mary Harron who brings The Moth Diaries but sadly it's another vampire teen tale. And Al Pacino's Wilde Salome, an investigate look at Oscar Wilde's biblical play. And lastly which caught our eye - James Franco's film about Rebel Without a Cause star Sal Mineo who died at the age of 37. Franco is both starring and directing the picture which will premiere in the Horizons section. Here's the full line-up to the best Venice Film Festival line-up in memory which is chaired by Darren Aronofsky; Venice 2011 Competition The Ides Of March, George Clooney (US) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Tomas Alfredson (UK, Germany) Wuthering Heights, Andrea Arnold (UK) Texas Killing Fields, Ami Canaan Maan (US) (second work) Quando La Notte, Cristina Comencini (Italy) Terraferma, Emanuele Crialese (Italy/France) A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg (Germany/Canada) 4:44 Last Day On Earth, Abel Ferrara (US) Killer Joe, William Friedkin (US) Un Ete Brulant, Philippe Garrel (France/Italy/Switzerland) A Simple Life (Taojie), Ann Hui (China/Hong Kong) The Exchange (Hahithalfut), Eran Kolirin (Israel) (second work) Alps (Alpeis), Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece) Shame, Steve McQueen (UK) (second work) Lultimo Terrestre, Gian Alfonso Pacinotti (GIPI) (Italy) (first work) Carnage, Roman Polanski (France/Germany/Spain/Poland) Chicken With Plums, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (France/Belgium/Germany) Faust, Aleksander Sokurov (Russia) Dark Horse, Todd Solondz (US) Himizu, Sion Sono (Japan) Seediq Bale, Wei Te-Sheng (Taiwan) (second work) Surprise film Out Of Competition Vivan las Antipodas! (documentary), Victor Kossakovsky (Germany/Argentina/Holland/Chile/Russia) Damsels In Distress, Whit Stillman (US) La Folie Almayer, Chantal Akerman (Belgium/France) The Sorcerer And The White Snake (Baish Echuanshuo), Tony Ching Siu-Tung (China/Hong Kong) Giochi Destate, Rolando Colla (Switzerland/Italy) La Desintegration, Philippe Fauchon (Belgium) The Moth Diaries, Mary Harron (Canada/Ireland) Alois Nebel, Tomas Lunak (first work) (Czech Republic/Germany) W.E., Madonna (UK) (second work) Eva, Kike Maillo (UK) (first work) Scossa, Francesco Maselli, Carlo Lizzani, Ugo Gregoretti, Nino Russo (Italy) La Cle Des Champs, Claude Nuridsany, Marie Perennou (France) Il Villaggio Di Cartone, Ermanno Olmi (Italy) Wilde Salome, Al Pacino (US) Tormented, Takashi Shimizu (Japan) Contagion, Steven Soderbergh (US) Marco Bellocchio, Venezia 2011, Pietro Marcello (Italy) (documentary, short) La Meditazione Di Hayez, Mario Martone (Italy) (short) Tahrir 2011, Tamer Ezzat, Ahmad Abdalla, Ayten Amin, Amr Salama (Egypt) (documentary) The End, Collectif Abounaddara (Syria) Vanguard, Colleftif Abounaddara (Syria) Evolution (Megaplex) (3D), Marco Brambilla (US) (experimental film) Questa Storia Qua , Alessandro Paris, Sibylle Righetti (Italy) (documentary) Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, Lisa Immordino Vreeland (US) (documentary) Golden Career Lion - Nel Nome Del Padre, Marcho Bellocchio (Italy) Orrizonti Cut, Amir Nadri (opening film) LOiseau, Yves Cuamon Wilson Hail, Amiel Courtin Nocturnos, Edgardo Cozarinsky Amore Carne, Pippo Delbono Im Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad And The Beautiful, Jonathan Demme Sal, James Franco Whores Glory, MIchael Glawogger Die Herde Des Herrn, Romuald Karmakar, Stateless Things (Jultak dongshi), Kim Kyungmook, Clarissa Campolina. Helvécio Marins Jr., Photographic Memory, Ross McElwee, The Invader, Nicolas Provost Shock Head Soul, Simon Pummell, Two Years at Sea, Ben Rivers, Aims Of The Blind Horse (Anhey ghorhey da daan), Gurvinder Singh, The Orator (O le tulafale), Tusi Tamasese Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Verano, José Luis Torres Leiva, Kotoko, Shinya Tsukamoto, Le Petit Poucet, Marina de Van, Swan (Cisne), Teresa Villaverde, The Sword Identity (Wokou de zongji), Xu Haofen, Would You Have Sex with an Arab?, Yolande Zauberman,