Eric Lavallée

I sort of lost track on this Euro item which at one point had Bruno Ganz set to star opposite Sandrine Bonnaire. Looks like Queen of Play would eventually pick up Kevin Kline; the actor got to practice his French in a feature film for a first time. A Tribeca 2009 entry, this centers on a hotel chambermaid (Bonnaire) whose growing interest in chess is nurtured by her American employer (Kline).

With strong critical support from Sundance, Roadside successfully launched Winter's Bone this summer and will appropriately handle the Gothams and Indie Spirits Awards, but Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful is a different creature.

Yellow, a project noted back in January, appears to be Cassavetes' renewal with the indie form. Filming begins in L.A. next month, and sweet Oklahoma in mid-October.

With Black Venus, Kechiche will once again compete in Venice and the voluminous almost three hour drama will surely met with the same fate: critically applauded, difficult to market in North America. I'm crossing my fingers for a TIFF North American premiere to alter the film's fate.

The Toronto Int Film Festival have added tons of Canadian content sprawling across several sections and this year's Midnight Madness opener will be a rowdy one in Michael Dowse's Fubar II. Among the notable world premieres we have Jonathan Sobol's A Beginners Guide to Endings grabing a Gala screening and in the Special Presentations we'll have a green carpet premiere for Sturla Gunnarsson's Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie - she follows the 75 year-old environmentalist during his time outs, and Jacob Tierney will make it a back to back years of preeming at TIFF, after The Trotsky he'll show off Good Neighbours which stars Scott Speedman, Emily Hampshire and Jay Baruchel.