Our Brand is Crisis to premiere at Toronto TIFF Friday, September 11, 2015

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Sandra Bullock’s ‘Our Brand Is Crisis,’ Robert Redford’s ‘Truth’ to Premiere at Toronto

David Gordon Green’s “Our Brand Is Crisis,” starring Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton; James Vanderbilt’s CBS scandal film “Truth,” starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford; and “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke’s “Miss You Already,” starring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette, will world premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, it was announced Tuesday.
Natalie Portman’s “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” based on Amos Oz’s bestselling novel, will receive its North American premiere following its debut at the Cannes Film Festival.
In all, Toronto added almost 100 films (including more than 40 world premieres) across its Gala, Special Presentations, City to City, Contemporary World Cinema and Wavelengths programs. It also added 38 international short films to Short Cuts.
The festival will close with the world premiere of Paco Cabezas’ “Mr. Right,” a romantic comedy with a hitman twist, starring Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell.
Special Presentations added 19 titles, including eight world premieres: Gordon Green’s “Crisis”; Vanderbilt’s “Truth”; Gaby Dellal’s family saga “About Ray,” starring Naomi Watts, Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon; Marc Abraham’s “I Saw the Light,” the story of country legend Hank Williams, starring Tom Hiddleston; Rob Reiner’s teen rehab tale “Being Charlie,” starring Nick Robinson and Morgan Saylor; Matthew Cullen’s “London Fields,” based on Martin Amis’ novel and starring Thornton; Lorene Scafaria’s “The Meddler,” about a recent widow (Sarandon) who moves to L.A. to be closer to her daughter; and Indian filmmaker Pan Nalin’s comic drama “Angry Indian Goddesses.”
The City to City program, spotlighting London this year, includes four world premieres in its slate: Tom Geens’ “Couple in a Hole,” George Amponsah’s “The Hard Stop,” David Farr’s “The Ones Below” and Michael Caton-Jones’ “Urban Hymns.”
Contemporary World Cinema — the program with the broadest global reach — adds 56 movies, including 26 world premieres. Leanne Pooley’s “25 April,” which uses animation to tell the story of the 1915 battle of Gallipoli; Christopher Doyle’s “Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous”; Eric Khoo’s Singapore Hotel-set “In the Room”; and Salem Brahimi’s family drama set in 1980s Algeria, “Let Them Come,” which is one of six films featured in the fest’s Contemporary World Speakers series, have been added to the lineup.
Wavelengths, the festival’s experimental strand, adds 54 films (10 feature length), videos and installations.
The 40th Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 to 20.

Thanks PAN. Wonder if George and Grant will be there?

I'm also interested in the movie "Truth" with Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford. I would think George will want to check this one out since it centers on newsman Dan Rather and the fall from grace at CBS News. Of course this is the kind of project that I would think George might have wanted to be involved in.

I read a few years ago that it was George who had a hand in getting Rather back on the air with a cable news program.

of course he would be there as it's world premiere! he's scheduled to do the Colbert show in NY around that time so it would be convenient for him to fly there.

Oh my. Maybe I need to go to TIFF this year.

But, seriously, with only two months till the release, where are the trailers or posters for this film?

I'm guessing they're waiting to see the response at TIFF before they go all out on publicity. If it does well they'll get a lot of good buzz and word-of-mouth publicity, which can save them a little money on their promotional budget. If it does poorly, they can cut back on their publicity budget and just let it sink into oblivion. Either way they've still got time to promote the film.

The premiere at TIFF is just that. Many of the films that premiere there are released in theatres months later. so no need to have all the trailers and that out.

Lizzy you made some good points there. But I can't believe a poster or trailer would cost them that much. Even the worst films got its posters and trailers. They could just debut them online which would be cheap and quick.
Anyway George has been working on this one for a few years and the cast&director sound decent, let's hope it turns out to be a good one and Warner Bros know how to promote it in that case.

The running time is 108 mins. From the TIFF official site, three screenings scheduled at the festival.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS
Directed by David Gordon Green
Created by
USA | 108 minutes |

Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton star in this story inspired by true events, in which rival American political strategists working to fix a Bolivian presidential election.
Our Brand Is Crisis would be cause for cynicism if it weren't so stubbornly hopeful — and so entertaining. This wry drama, telling the fact-based story of American strategists hired to bolster an unpopular Bolivian presidential candidate, encapsulates the ethical chasms of twenty-first-century electioneering.

Political consultant "Calamity" Jane Bodine (Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock) could give a master class in spin. She's come out of retirement to work for presidential hopeful Castillo (Joaquim De Almeida), and her motivation is simple. She means to beat her old rival, Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), who's masterminding the campaign for the contender set to win by a landslide.

Jane has her work cut out for her. Castillo does not ingratiate; he comes off as elitist in a country whose population is predominantly poor and indigenous. Playing right into one of Candy's set-ups, Castillo socks a prankster in the face, in front of the cameras. It should sink him, but the ever-imaginative Jane turns it into an asset: Bolivia is in crisis, and in crisis you need authority and an iron fist, not broad smiles and glad-handing. Manipulating the optics at every turn, Jane finds a way to sculpt Castillo into the right man for his people — even if she knows he will betray them the moment he takes office.

Fleetly directed by David Gordon Green (Manglehorn) from a brilliantly structured script by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Our Brand Is Crisis may confirm your worst fears about the abuses of democracy. Yet Bullock's abundant charisma will have you believe that even a Machiavellian schemer like Jane can occasionally fight the good fight.
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Another review from one of the audience:
Joined: Aug 24th 2013, 02:02
Total Topics: 59, Posts: 2,945
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So I caught this on a press screening last night, invited by a good friend of mine who happens to ba a film journalist (she also took me to Gravity and Nebraska two years ago before they were released). The crowd was composed mostly by journalists so needless to say I was the youngest bitch in that joint (I tried my very best to look dapper and older lol)

This is perhaps one of the best films I saw this year and David Gordon Green's alma mater. Sharply funny but serious when the story needed it to be, fast-paced like The West Wing but slow enough for people to understand the political shenanigans, cohesive without the fear of going a little crazy at times. This is Sandra Bullock's best performance to date without a shadow of doubt (in my opinion). While she was nominated twice (winning once) for playing highly dramatic characters in challenging situations, this is a role that plays directly to her strengths providing her a character that I always imagined Sandra being nominated for an Oscar for. Calamity Bodine is a riot from start to finish. Her interactions with the campaign team are gold but what truly seals the deal for her performance is her ability to change (so effortlessly) from comedy (specially in her interactions with Billy Bob Thornton's character) to drama real quick (it gets more serious and dramatic throughout its progression).

For anyone who's predicting Billy Bob for a SA nom forget it. There's not much there to go for, even in such a barren category as Supporting Actor. My fellow countryman Joaquim de Almeida is the one who gets the juiciest part. His scenes with Bullock are amazing and his character offers us a twist that we don't see very often in this genre. I'm going to wait for the first reviews but if he gets as much praise as he deserves (and certainly got from the crowd I was watching the movie with) I'm putting him in my predictions. Anthony Mackie was pretty good too. Btw speaking of crowd: they absolutely LOVED Sandra. This is her movie and she sells it like girl scout's cookies.

This is WB's best (and perhaps only) awards bet so I'm pretty confident they will campaign for it like crazy. The release date is October 30th (super awards friendly) with no direct competition so I expect this movie to be both a commercially and a critically success. As of now I'm predicting Best Picture and Best Actress nominations (seriously Sandra HAS TO be nominated, she's a huge threat and can even win the Comedy GG if OBIC is placed there) with Screenplay, Supporting Actor and Editing right outside the bubble if the support is there.

#3 Oscar nom for SaBu!!!
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Wow, concerning to this review it must be a terrific movie!
I hope it will be easy to understand for the non-american viewers because sometimes I find it really difficult to understand all issues on a movie when you're not familiar with all the facts...

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trailer next week!

David Gordon Green talked about how it all came together:
W&F: What's going on with your adaptation of the John Grisham book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town? Are you still working on it?

DGG: Not anymore. I feel like that story's been told by other movies at this point. I spent some time on Death Row in Oklahoma, which was amazing, and did the adaptation. But I don't know that the appetite is there anymore. It did introduce me to Smokehouse Pictures, George Clooney and Grant Heslov's company, who I did the writing job for, and we got along so great that I just finished directing a movie for them that's been a real pleasure ["Our Brand Is Crisis"], about a Bolivian presidential race.
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Here's the link to the 2015 TIFF Schedule:

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Tonight

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We know that Grant Heslov will be there.........and looks like Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have their premieres there today too.............a party!



TIFF on Friday, Sept. 11: Helen Mirren, Sandra Bullock — and George Clooney?

Roy Thomson Hall will host Hollywood royalty — Helen Mirren — this evening, for the premiere of drone drama Eye in the Sky. Billy Bob Thornton, Sandra Bullock and quite possibly George Clooney may turn up at the Prince of Wales Theatre for the premiere of Clooney’s new production Our Brand is Crisis.

Want to get a photo with your favourite star? Today is the day — but you may have to be in a few places at once, so plan wisely!
Hollywood royalty — and real-life British Dame — Helen Mirren will be on the red carpet tonight at TIFF for the world premiere of Eye in the Sky at Roy Thomson Hall (60 Simcoe St.) at 6:30 p.m.
Mirren stars alongside Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman and Iain Glen in this thriller about a military drone mission that goes awry.
Billy Bob Thornton and Sandra Bullock will be on-hand for the premiere of their new film, Our Brand is Crisis at Princess of Wales Theatre (300 King St.), also at 6:30 p.m.
Keep your fingers crossed and perennial favourite George Clooney (a producer on the film) may just make an appearance.

Elsewhere, Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen star in I Saw the Light, a biopic about country-music legend Hank Williams. Red carpet is at 6 p.m. at Ryerson Theatre (43 Gerrard St. E.).
And you can bet the stars will be out in force at 9:30 p.m. for the premiere of The Martian at Roy Thomson Hall.


The Ridley Scott-directed intergalactic adventure stars Matt Damon as a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars, while a team of scientists — played by an all-star cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels and Chiwetel Ejiofor — tries to bring him home.
The party continues Friday night at Drake One Fifty on, which is hosting the Grolsch Open House featuring live music and art exhibitions. The Spoke Club (600 King St. West) is home to Nikki Beach, a daily party running until Sept. 13 on the bar’s fourth floor and rooftop patio.