Venice film festival sets up a Hollywood invasion
A battalion of Hollywood heavyweights will lead a US invasion of next month's Venice film festival, the organisers announced Thursday.
Six big-name American films led by Mel Gibson's "Hacksaw Ridge" about a World War II army medic who was the only conscientious objector ever to win the Congressional Medal of Honor, are headlining the glitzy Italian gathering which starts on August 31.
It will also see a swathe of other much-anticipated premieres including legendary director Terrence Malick's 3D documentary about "the birth and death" of the universe, "Voyage of Time".
Fashion designer-turned-director Tom Ford's "Nocturnal Animals" starring Jake Gyllenhaal will also be wheeled out.
Distributors at the rival Cannes festival shelled out an eye-watering $20 million last year for the thriller set on the Los Angeles art scene, raising eyebrows in the industry.
And "Jackie", a much talked about biopic of late US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy starring Natalie Portman, will also be unveiled.
The film, directed by Chilean Pablo Larrain, reportedly centres on the days after her husband John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.
Portman also stars in the French film "Planetarium" about two sisters who talk to ghosts, which will be shown at Venice.
With Damien Chazelle's "La La Land" starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone opening the festival and an all-star remake of the classic western "The Magnificent Seven" closing it, Hollywood bookends the 11-day jamboree.
"We must recognise the vitality of American cinema," festival director Alberto Barbera said, "which represents the best and the worst" of today's filmmaking.
He even described the Canadian historical drama "Brimstone", the first English-language film by the Dutch director Martin Koolhoven as a "European western".
Double Oscar winner Emir Kusturica with "On the Milky Road", Francois Ozon's "Frantz" and Wim Wenders's "The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez" are the other big European filmmakers in the running for Venice's top prize, the Golden Lion.
Wenders has teamed up again with the singer-songwriter Nick Cave -- who has scored several of his films -- but this time with the Australian in front of the camera. The punk legend also features in Andrew Dominik's 3D film "Once More With Feeling".
Only three Italian films have made the cut including the documentary "Spira Mirabilis" by Massimo d'Anolfi and Martina Parenti.
Last year Venice premiered the Hollywood film "Spotlight" which went on to lift the best film Oscar, and the festival on the city's beachfront Lido has become a launchpad for multiple award winners.
But despite the strong studio presence, the Golden Lion went to "From Afar" by the unknown first-time Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas.