The Toronto International Film Festival will include some fantastic films, but one film that heads to the top of the list is Rian Johnson’s third and newest film ‘Looper.’ ‘Looper’ features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as hitman Joseph Simmons, who kills people sent by the Mafia and gang members from the year 2077 to 2047. The advantage here is that no one will miss that individual in the year 2047, thus covering up the perfect crime. However, things take a turn for the weird when Joseph Simmons’ older self (Bruce Willis) is sent back for him to kill.

‘Looper’ is expected to be a fantastic film, since this is only the second time in history that a non-Canadian film started the film festival. According to Cameron Bailey, the Toronto International Film Festival Artistic Director, “with ‘Looper,’ Rian has taken his filmmaking to a new level, and we can’t wait to present it to the Toronto audience in the most prestigious platform we can offer.” According to Cinema Blend, ‘Looper’ was a huge hit at the San Diego International Comic-Con.

This is the second time that Johnson has showed one of his films at the Toronto Film Festival, the first being the world premiere of his second film ‘The Brothers Bloom.’ Rian Johnson’s first film ‘Brick,’ with a budget of only $500,000, won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Cameron Bailey was at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and witnessed the presentation of ‘Brick.’ “I saw Rian’s debut feature ‘Brick’ at the Sundance festival and was impressed by his ability to engage both the mind and the heart,” he said.

The ten day Festival begins September 6 and is considered the unofficial beginning to the Oscar season. The rest of the Toronto Film Festival will include more than sixty films, thirty-eight of which will be world premieres. Some writers/directors are returning to the silver screen while others are debuting their first works.

Ben Affleck will return again as a director and actor in “Argo,” a film based on a true story that happened during the Iranian hostage crisis. Robert Redford will also direct and star in ‘The Company You Keep.’ Other films that feature returning directors are ‘Hyde Park on Hudson,’ directed by Roger Mitchell and starring Bill Murray as Franklin Delano Roosevelt; ‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ directed by David O. Russell and starring Bradley Cooper; and Billy Bob Thorton’s ‘Jayne Mansfield’s Car.’

At least three films will also be bringing literature to life this year with Director Joe Wright’s ‘Anna Karenina,’ ‘Cloud Atlas’ (which has an almost completely all-star cast, including Tom Hanks), and – surprisingly – Director Joss Whedon’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Stuart Blumberg (writer of ‘The Kids Are All Right’) will be making his directorial debut in the film ‘Thanks for Sharing,’ a romantic comedy starring Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow as friends recovering from sex addiction. Dustin Hoffman will also – finally – be making his directorial debut with ‘Quartet,’ a comedy about four retired English opera singers.

Some other films that have already started a buzz at other film festivals include Jacques Audiard’s ‘Rust and Bones’ at Cannes and ‘The Sessions’ at Sundance Film Festival.

Ultimately this year it looks like the Toronto International Film Festival is going to have some show-stealing productions. Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to wait until these films are released in theaters or on DVD/Blu-ray.

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Patina Miller, star of ’Sister Act: The Musical’, has announced that she will be leaving her lead role as lounge-singer-turned-nun Deloris Van Cartier on March 18, after more than three years with the production.

Based on the hit 1992 film starring Whoopi Goldberg, ‘Sister Act: The Musical’ opened on London’s West End stage in 2009 with Patina Miller playing the lead role of Deloris who, after witnessing a murder committed by her gangster boyfriend, goes into hiding at a local convent, assumes a false identity under the name of Sister Mary Clarence, and inadvertently becomes the leader of the convent’s tone-deaf choir, who she transforms into a cultural sensation, despite butting heads with Mother Superior, played in the original film by Maggie Smith.

Miller’s stage performance drew rave reviews, earning her a 2010 Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. The musical was so popular among London theatre-goers that it even lured Whoopi Goldberg, who serves as one of the show’s producers, into appearing for a brief run as Mother Superior.

During her run in the summer of 2010, she told reporters that she was too old to take on the main role of Deloris again and that the role was in good hands with Miller. Goldberg returned to the show in October, shortly before it drew to a close in October 2010 after an 18 month run.

Shortly after closing in London, the producers announced that they would be taking the show to New York’s Broadway stage – and that Patina Miller would be coming with them. With a new supporting cast and a slightly revised plot and songbook, the musical re-opened at the Broadway Theatre on April 20, 2011 to positive reviews and further recognition for Miller as she won a Theatre World Award and picked up her first Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in the Musical.

During a promotional trek for the musical’s Broadway debut, Miller admitted that the schedule which came with playing Deloris was incredibly intense and that she had led very little in the way of a social life while in London. Nevertheless, Miller forged ahead with the role and spoke of her joy at being able to originate a role on Broadway at such a young age (Miller is 27).

She also saw her Twitter following grow to over 4,500 followers as the New York theatre community took to her with ease, and as she gained a reputation for being eager to use the social media platform to engage with both passionate new fans in New York and loyal old fans back in London.

However, after less than 12 months on Broadway, Miller has announced that she will be leaving ‘Sister Act: The Musical’, to be replaced by former Disney star Raven-Symoné. This will mark the first major stage role for Symoné, who has enjoyed a long-running acting career, but Goldberg and fellow producers are hoping that the musical will continue to thrive without Miller’s impeccable presence and, more importantly, her soaring voice.

There is still a while to go before anyone will know if Symoné is indeed the right replacement, with Miller due to deliver approximately twenty further performances before she hangs up her habit for good, at which point all Broadway eyes will be fixated on Miller as she strives to prove that she has what it takes to succeed without the security of her ‘Sister Act’ family. One thing is for certain: Miller will not be forgotten quickly. As she sings in the musical’s seminal song:

All that glitz and glamour / they’re all right no doubt.
But what are you left with / when the lights go out?

I’ll have my sisters with me still / I’ll have my sisters, always will.
And with my sisters’ love / no star above will shine as bright as me.

And as a sister and a friend / I’ll be a sister ’til the end,
and no one on this earth can / change that fact -

I’m part of one terrific sister act.

Image Courtesy of  Brecon [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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