Toronto Film Festival is a vehicle for change

By DAVID GERMAIN

AP Movie Writer

updated 6:36 p.m. ET Sept. 8, 2006

TORONTO - Celebrities always are looking to show new sides of themselves, and the Toronto International Film Festival is one of the best showcases for their transformations.

A launching pad for Hollywood's fall releases and awards contenders, the Toronto festival is where Jamie Foxx became Ray Charles in "Ray," Eminem went from rapper to movie star in "8 Mile" and Denzel Washington turned director with "Antwone Fisher."

Transformations highlighting this year's festival, which opens Thursday and runs through Sept. 16, include Sean Penn as a Southern demagogue, Forest Whitaker as an African dictator, Russell Crowe as a romantic lead, former James Bond Pierce Brosnan as a Civil War fugitive, new James Bond Daniel Craig as a cold-blooded murderer and Will Ferrell as a serious actor.

The 31st Toronto festival also offers a huge range of international films, documentaries, independent fare, avant-garde works and movies looking to find theatrical distributors.

"Toronto offers the widest breadth of any of the major festivals," said Tom Ortenberg, president of Lionsgate Films, whose 2004 Toronto acquisition "Crash" went on to win the best-picture Academy Award last spring.

The company's lineup at Toronto this time includes the documentary "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," which opens theatrically Sept. 15 and examines the former Beatle's transition to anti-war activist.

The festival opens Thursday night with the Canadian film "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen," a saga of native Inuits and their first contact with Europeans.

Along with the John Lennon documentary, Toronto's nonfiction lineup features the musical portrait "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing." Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple ("Harlan County, U.S.A.") the documentary traces the furor over the country trio after singer Natalie Maines told a concert audience in 2003, "We're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

A filmmaker accustomed to furor will be on hand. Oscar winner Moore ("Fahrenheit 9/11," "Bowling for Columbine") will show a teaser for his health-care indictment "Sicko" and excerpts from another film-in-progress, "The Great '04 Slacker Uprising," following his rabble-rousing travels during the 2004 presidential election.

The festival's biggest political hot potato may be director Gabriel Range's "Death of a President," a documentary-style film chronicling the fictional assassination of President Bush.

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