London festival gives Clooney fix

By Neil Smith
Entertainment reporter, BBC News

Clooney has been at the Venice Film Festival this week

George Clooney will be hard to miss at this year's London Film Festival, where three movies in which the Hollywood star appears will be screened.

The 48-year-old's voice can be heard in Fantastic Mr Fox, an animated version of the Roald Dahl novel that launches the two-week event on 14 October.

He will also be seen in the flesh in military satire The Men Who Stare at Goats and the comedy Up in the Air.

The actor is expected to attend the festival, which runs until 29 October.

Meryl Streep and Bill Murray, who also voice characters in Wes Anderson's film, are expected at the Fantastic Mr Fox premiere too.

Clooney will also attend the Men Who Stare at Goats screening, which will take place the following night.

As previously announced, the festival will close with Nowhere Boy - a drama about the early life of Beatle John Lennon that marks the feature debut of British artist Sam Taylor-Wood.

The full festival programme was unveiled on Wednesday at a press launch in central London.

'Strong and varied'

New films from Steven Soderbergh, Ang Lee and Joel and Ethan Coen are among the 146 UK premieres featured in the line-up.

The event will also showcase the first UK screening of a new 3D version of Toy Story 2. The 3D version of the first instalment will already be in cinemas by that time.

Both Toy Story films are being re-released in the 3D format

Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and director Jane Campion are among those who will be interviewed on the stage of the National Film Theatre.

For the first time the festival will also bestow a best film award, to be decided by a high-profile jury, whose members are yet to be announced.

The White Ribbon - winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes - is among several titles to receive gala screenings.

Others include Campion's Bright Star, about the poet John Keats, and The Road, an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel that had its world premiere last week at the Venice Film Festival.

London will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wallace and Gromit with a career interview with their creator, animator Nick Park.

Sandra Hebron, the long-running festival's artistic director, said she was "delighted we have such a strong and varied programme."

'Surge of emotion'

Speaking to the BBC News website, she added that one of this year's main attractions was the number of so-called auteurs involved.

"One of the things that characterises the selection is there are a lot of films from the great and the good amongst the world's significant filmmakers."

Morrissey appears in his own film and also Sam Taylor-Wood's

New funding from the UK Film Council will enable a stand-alone awards ceremony to be held on the penultimate night of the festival.

However, Hebron denied that the introduction of a best film prize represented a U-turn for this traditionally non-competitive event.

"There is a desire within the industry for London to give a best film award," she told the BBC News website.

"But we are not aiming to have a part of the festival which is for competition, which is what you get in a festival like Venice or Cannes."

Guests at Wednesday's launch were shown a 30-minute compilation of excerpts from this year's line-up.

Actor David Morrissey, whose directorial debut Don't Worry About Me will be showcased at the festival, said he felt a "surge of emotion" as his name was projected on the Odeon Leicester Square's screen.

The Liverpool-born star, recently seen on the BBC's Doctor Who, also appears in Nowhere Boy alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff.

The 45-year-old said Taylor-Wood's film - which depicts Lennon as a 15-year-old boy - would show "a very different side" to the Fab Four icon.