Millennium Films; Thibault Monnier/ Jeff Steinberg; PacificCoastNews.comKristen Stewart's turbulent personal life may be nabbing all the headlines these days, but lest we forget: The gal actually acts! (Imagine that.)
The folks behind the Toronto Film Festival want to remind us of this, as they've just announced that her highly anticipated flick On the Road has been added to the showcase's lineup.
The big-screen adaptation of the iconic Jack Kerouac novel, which also stars Garrett Hedlund and Kirsten Dunst, is among 21 new films that have joined the event's burgeoning slate, which comprises a curious mélange of projects starring film-festival mainstays (Nicole Kidman), newbies (Vanessa Hudgens) and art-house faves (Charlotte Gainsbourg).
Aside from On the Road, the new additions include a healthy dose of Hollywood.
There's the death-row drama The Paperboy, starring Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron and Kidman, as well as Spring Breakers—with Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez and James Franco—about a group of college gals who hijack a fast-food restaurant to finance their vacay. (You might also know this flick as The One Where Franco Channels Kevin Federline.)
Auteurs will also be amply repped at the festival.
Spike Lee is set to unveil Bad, his tribute to the iconic, eponymous Michael Jackson album on the eve of its 25th anniversary. The documentary features previously unseen footage of the King of Pop, some of it shot by Jackson himself.
Paul Thomas Anderson meanwhile debuts his follow-up to 2007's Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood: the highly anticipated The Master. The post–World War II drama, about a naval officer (Joaquin Phoenix) drawn to the charismatic leader of a church (Philip Seymour Hoffman), has fired up talk over what some pundits believe is Anderson's subversive dig at Scientology. The director, however, has so far remained mum.
Then there's Brian De Palma's Passion, which is being billed as an erotic thriller set in the world of global commerce. In a notable change of pace, Rachel McAdams and the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Noomi Rapace, star opposite each other as two sparring businesswomen. We're already ramped up to see how this one goes down!
The films join the event's already impressive lineup, which was announced in June and features a bevy of possible awards contenders including the Ben Affleck hostage drama Argo, the Bill Murray-as-Franklin Delano Roosevelt romance Hyde Park on Hudson, and the Robert Redford activist-on-the-lam thriller The Company You Keep.
The 2012 Toronto Film Festival unspools from Sept. 6-16. For the complete lineup of screenings, visit TIFF's website.