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Nazis, Cults and Sydney Sweeney: Hollywood Heads to 50th Toronto Fest 

Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)
Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)
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Nazis, Cults and Sydney Sweeney: Hollywood Heads to 50th Toronto Fest 

Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)
Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)

The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off Thursday, with Hollywood stars Russell Crowe, Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Craig bringing hotly anticipated world premieres to the 50th edition of North America's biggest movie event.

Though lacking the historic glamour of Cannes or Venice, TIFF dwarfs rival festivals for sheer scale and is a key launchpad for Oscars campaigns, luring A-listers, critics and giant public audiences for 11 days of red-carpet galas.

On this anniversary year, Matthew McConaughey, Paul Mescal, Angelina Jolie and Anya Taylor-Joy will all hit the screenings and soirees in Canada, while French directors Romain Gavras, Claire Denis and Arnaud Desplechin bring an added European flair.

Among the world premieres, Crowe gives what organizers describe as a nuanced and eerily charismatic performance as Nazi Hermann Goering on trial in historical drama "Nuremberg," opposite fellow Oscar-winner Rami Malek.

"The unexpected part of this performance is you don't expect to be disarmed by this person, who you know has done horrible things," said TIFF director of programming Robyn Citizen. "And then, through the course of the movie, you are."

Sweeney aims to pivot from her recent jeans ad controversy to Academy Award contender with "Christy," a gritty, raw biopic of US female boxing pioneer Christy Martin.

"I think this is the role that's going to make people take notice again of the actor that she is," predicted Citizen.

In another harrowing true-life tale, McConaughey rescues schoolchildren from California wildfires in the emotionally searing action-thriller "The Lost Bus."

With an estimated 400,000 annual attendees, the "audience-first" Toronto festival traditionally showcases splashy crowd-pleasers alongside awards fare.

This year marks the return for a third time at TIFF of Netflix's popular "Knives Out" whodunit franchise, with former 007 actor Craig back investigating the latest murder in "Wake Up Dead Man."

Josh Brolin plays an unnerving demagogue with a cult following in a film that "tackles current issues in a fun, locked-room, classical-plot way," says Citizen.

Several French auteurs are set to attend this year's fest.

Matt Dillon appears in Denis' drama "The Fence," about a mysterious death on an African construction site, while Desplechin launches love story "Two Pianos" starring Charlotte Rampling.

Alice Winocour pairs with Jolie for Paris fashion drama "Couture."

Gavras's celebrity climate-change satire "Sacrifice" stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans as an eco-terrorist and a waning movie star, respectively.

Elsewhere, the festival's comedy selections contain some of its starriest names.

Keanu Reeves plays an incompetent angel in Aziz Ansari's body-swapping farce "Good Fortune," while Channing Tatum portrays a real-life fugitive who lives clandestinely inside a Toys R Us store in "Roofman."

Brendan Fraser plays a lonely actor available for hire at funerals and weddings in Tokyo-set "Rental Family."

Toronto follows hot on the heels of the small but influential US-based Telluride festival, and as usual invites a selection of movies from that intimate event to make a bigger, second splash in the Canadian metropolis.

Among them, Mescal plays a young William Shakespeare in literary adaptation "Hamnet" from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao -- though the focus is squarely on the Bard's long-suffering wife Agnes, played by a "transcendent" Jessie Buckley, says Citizen.

Director Edward Berger, on a hot run after "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave," will present Colin Farrell as a down-on-his-luck gambler pursued through the casinos of Macao by Tilda Swinton's investigator in "Ballad of a Small Player."

And fresh from Venice, Guillermo del Toro brings his reimagining of "Frankenstein" to Toronto.

Latino reggaeton megastar J Balvin makes his movie debut, playing a 1980s cop chasing cocaine smugglers to the remotest reaches of Nova Scotia in "Little Lorraine."

"Brat" singer-songwriter Charli xcx has two new films -- Gavras's "Sacrifice," and Polish arthouse drama "Erupcja."

And Baz Luhrmann will premiere "EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert," featuring long-lost footage of The King that the director unearthed while making his 2022 biopic "Elvis."

TIFF runs from Thursday through to September 14.

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Entertainment

New James Bond Actor Revealed ’Soon’, Frontrunners Emerge

Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
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New James Bond Actor Revealed ’Soon’, Frontrunners Emerge

Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 

An industry insider has revealed when the next James Bond film could begin shooting with its all-new 007, according to METRO newspaper.

The search for the next Bond has been on since Daniel Craig’s version of the character was killed off in No Time To Die, rather definitively vacating the role.

Since then, the franchise has been acquired by Amazon MGM Studios, who have begun work on the secret agent’s next era.

This has included hiring Dune director Denis Villeneuve to helm the next instalment of the long-running series.

While we know that Villeneuve will direct a script by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Amazon has yet to pick its next leading actor – although they have reportedly narrowed their search down to eight names.

Sharing his thoughts on when our new Bond could be revealed, senior Deadline film reporter Justin Kroll has hinted that the announcement everyone’s waiting for may be imminent.

Appearing on the My Mom’s Basement podcast, Kroll shared his prediction for when Villeneuve’s Bond might begin rolling.

“I am predicting summer, if I had to be a betting man,” Kroll said. “Because I think production will likely start [at the] end of this year/top of next.”

He continued: “Obviously, it could be a little sooner, but from everything people have said since I’ve been back, Bond is more likely middle of the year than first quarter.”

If true, this means that Bond fans could finally get some major news any day now.

This comes as producers have reportedly narrowed their search to include some of the hottest names in Hollywood right now.

Dua Lipa’s husband-to-be and Eternity actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge – according to the star himself, if a source for the Daily Mail is to be believed.

Turner is confident that his license to kill is already in the post, with an insider sharing how he’d been ‘blabbing’ the news all over town.

“Callum is the new Bond; it’s been confirmed,” they said. “Everyone in his circle is talking about it. It’s the worst-kept secret going.”

They finished: “Dua is over the moon for Callum. She’s been saying she’d love to record the Bond theme.”

Entertainment

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' at Number One in N. America for 5th Straight Week

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
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'Avatar: Fire and Ash' at Number One in N. America for 5th Straight Week

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" showed no signs of slowing down, topping the North American box office for the fifth consecutive week over the long holiday weekend, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The third installment in director James Cameron's blockbuster fantasy series took in another $17.2 million from Friday to Monday, when Americans mark Martin Luther King Jr Day.

That put its US and Canadian haul at $367.4 million, and its worldwide total at more than $1.3 billion, according to Exhibitor Relations.

"Fire and Ash" stars Zoe Saldana as Na'vi warrior Neytiri and Sam Worthington as ex-Marine Jake Sully, who must battle a new foe threatening their family's life on the planet Pandora.

It is the fourth Cameron film to pass the $1 billion mark, along with the first two "Avatar" films and "Titanic."

Debuting in second place with a disappointing $15 million was "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," the fourth installment in the zombie horror series, which comes less than a year after the last film.

"Returning after 7 months is quick -- it's too quick, and it's hurting the numbers," said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.

Disney's feel-good animated film "Zootopia 2" showed its staying power, moving up to third place at $12 million over the four-day weekend.

In fourth place at $10.2 million was "The Housemaid," an adaptation of Freida McFadden's best-selling novel about a young woman who is hired by a wealthy couple with dark secrets. Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried star in the Lionsgate release.

"Marty Supreme," starring Oscars frontrunner Timothee Chalamet as a conniving 1950s table tennis player with big dreams, finished in fifth place at $6.7 million.

Entertainment

Jennifer Lawrence Says She Lost Role to Margot Robbie After Critics Called Her Ugly

 American Actress Jennifer Lawrence (AFP) 
 American Actress Jennifer Lawrence (AFP) 
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Jennifer Lawrence Says She Lost Role to Margot Robbie After Critics Called Her Ugly

 American Actress Jennifer Lawrence (AFP) 
 American Actress Jennifer Lawrence (AFP) 

Jennifer Lawrence has revealed she lost an acting role to Margot Robbie after critics called her ugly.

The American actress, 35, said she was denied a part in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood because she was deemed not “pretty enough,” according to The Telegraph newspaper.

Robbie was cast in her place in the Quentin Tarantino blockbuster, which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.

Lawrence told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that Tarantino had expressed interest in her playing Sharon Tate, the actress and wife of Roman Polanski, who was murdered by members of the Manson Family cult in 1969.
“Well, he did, and then everybody was like, ‘She’s not pretty enough to play Sharon Tate’,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure it is true, or it’s that thing where I’ve been telling the story this way for so long that I believe it. No, but I’m pretty sure that happened. Or he just was never considering me for the part, and the internet just, like, went out of their way to call me ugly,” Lawrence said.

Ahead of the 2019 film, Debra Tate, the sister of Sharon, said Robbie should take the part because Lawrence was “not pretty enough.”

“They are both extremely accomplished actresses, but I would have to say my pick would be Margot, simply because of her physical beauty and the way she carries herself – it’s similar to that of Sharon,” she said.

“I don’t think as much about Jennifer Lawrence – not that I have anything against her. She’s just, I don’t know, she’s not pretty enough to play Sharon. That’s a horrible thing to say, but I have my standards,” she added.

Tarantino said in 2021 that he had also considered Lawrence for the part of Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a member of the Manson Family.

“Early on, I investigated the idea of Jennifer Lawrence playing Squeaky,” he said. “So she read it, and afterward we talked about it a little bit... something didn’t work out... But she’s a very nice person, and I respect her as an actress,” he said.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood won three Golden Globes and two Oscars after its release in 2019.