Clooney, Foster, Pitt descend on Toronto

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‘Up in the Air’ L.A. premiere
Dec. 1: George Clooney, along with co-stars Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, and Jason Bateman, hit the red carpet in Westwood, Calif., where they talked about what makes this film so timely and what attracted them to the project.

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December movies
James Cameron’s spectacle “Avatar” hits theaters, along with George Clooney, who is “Up in the Air,” and Robert Downey Jr. as “Sherlock Holmes.”

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New crop of actor-turned-directors
The festival features directing debuts by two former TV sitcom stars. David Schwimmer of “Friends” directs the comedy “Run, Fat Boy, Run,” with Simon Pegg as a man trying to win back his old fiance by proving his worth in a marathon. Helen Hunt of “Mad About You” directs and stars in “Then She Found Me,” about a teacher whose life turns upside down when her husband leaves her, her adoptive mother dies and her biological mom (Bette Midler) turns up.

Hunt said her past experiences at Toronto were less stressful than this trip, when she will be looking to land a distributor to put her film in theaters.

“Before, I’ve been a movie star getting out of a car at big, gala premieres,” Hunt said. “I have no idea what to expect this time. Hopefully, somebody will say it’s a movie we like and we can sell because it’s good.”

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Director Paul Haggis, whose ensemble drama “Crash” was picked up by distributor Lionsgate at the Toronto festival and went on to win best-picture at the Oscars, returns with “In the Valley of Elah,” a murder mystery set among U.S. soldiers newly returned from Iraq. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.

This time around, Haggis already has a distributor for his film, which opens in theaters Sept. 14.

“I guess this time, we’re hoping for good word-of-mouth while we’re there and a good launch,” Haggis said. “It’ll go out on a few screens, then we’ll hope that it slowly builds. So, yeah, good word-of-mouth at the start will help.”

“In the Valley of Elah” star Jones also sold his directing debut, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” at the Toronto festival.

“I think it became a good marketing venue. Otherwise, I know almost nothing about festivals,” said Jones, who also stars in the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” which is playing at Toronto. “I know what it looks like on the receiving end of the flashbulbs, but that’s the extent of my expertise.”

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