TIFF 2016 to open with ‘Magnificent Seven’ remake

Movies by Quebec director Denis Villeneuve, fashion designer Tom Ford, three-time Academy Award winner Oliver Stone, and the buzzy ‘Birth of a Nation‘ are headed to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Organizers announced the first slate of 2016 festival films today, including Villeneuve’s sci-fi thriller ‘Arrival,’ starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.

The film fest’s opening film will be the star-studded remake of the 1960 western ‘The Magnificent Seven,’ with a cast including Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke. The film will make its world premiere in Toronto.

Also bound for the fest with big buzz is Stone’s ‘Snowden,’ a dramatization of Edward Snowden’s decision to leak classified security documents to the media. Stars include Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley and Melissa Leo.

Audiences will get to see London, Ont., native Ryan Gosling sing in the musical romance ‘La La Land.’ ‘Whiplash’ writer-director Damien Chazelle helms the cast that also features Emma Stone and J. K. Simmons.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 8-18.

The closing film will be the Vancouver-shot coming-of-age comedy ‘The Edge of Seventeen,’ starring Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick.

Other highlights announced Tuesday:

• Ewan McGregor makes his directorial debut on ‘American Pastoral,’ He also stars, alongside Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Connelly, in the adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
• The biographical drama ‘Barry’ looks at U.S. President Barack Obama’s years as a college student in New York City.
• Rob Reiner directs ‘LBJ,’ starring Harrelson as president Lyndon B. Johnson and Jennifer Jason Leigh as his wife Lady Bird Johnson.
• In ‘Queen of Katwe,’ directed by Mira Nair, David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o star in the real-life story of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi.
• ‘The Journey is the Destination,’ by Toronto native Bronwen Hughes, stars Maria Bello in the story of slain photojournalist Dan Eldon.
• Other Canadian content includes ‘Unless’ by Ireland’s Alan Gilsenan, based on the novel late Canuck novelist Carol Shields.
• Musical flicks include the star-packed animated comedy ‘Sing,’ the Justin Timberlake concert doc ‘JT + The Tennessee Kids’ by Jonathan Demme, and ‘The Rolling Stones Ole Ole Ole!: A Trip Across Latin America’ by Paul Dugdale.