Eric Lavallée

TIFF Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes naturally used the twitter and 12 midnight combo to announce a handful of titles that are the make up of this year's section. Among the titles we have Wu Ershan's The Butcher, The Chef and the Swordsman stars Ando Masanobu, BenChang You and Kitty Zhang. After taking a long break from directing, John Carpenter will preem The Ward - the horror pic stars a panicked Amber Heard. Next we have Guy Moshe's Bunraku - with Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore and Ron Perlman in an original universe a la "Sin City" and draws from a mixed bag of genres, including puppets, origami, comic books, video games and German expressionism.

IndiePix have some big plans in store for their latest acquisition. Despite being a "web-based" distribution company, in the past they've managed to grab a Venice Film Festival winner Women Without Men and now, they've grabbed a Cannes camera d'or winner in Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah.

Not sure what the status is on A Single Shot -- an ensemble crime set to star Michael Fassbender, Forest Whitaker, William H. Macy and Thomas Haden Church and set to film in Ontario sometime this summer, but it looks like helmer Jacob Davidson (best known for Down in the Valley) can count on his producer who produce his debut film Dahmer to possibly fit him with his next project -- which by all accounts appears to be a verbally interesting shouting match.

Finally it has arrived. Less than a month before it preems theatrically (Magnolia is certainly not going to go the old VOD for one month route) and three weeks or so before it hits Venice, Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here -- a mocku experimental performance piece film that mixes faux and non-fiction is bound to be compared to a pair of Sacha Baron Cohen films that we're all too familiar with. The trailer obviously doesn't reveal what form this takes -- and at this point I'm more curious if Phoenix will complete the cycle on Letterman and how much longer will he run with this public performance?

After the critically acclaimed indie gem, The Maid, Sebastien Silva's third film, titled Old Cats (Los Gatos Viejos) is a rare world preem that cracked the NYFF line-up. When we last interviewed Silva, he had mentioned he'd be working on Second Child and subsequently he signed a two-picture deal with Elephant Eye Films moving "Old Cats" at the top of his list.