Celebrity speculation begins: are Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Freida Pinto coming to TIFF?

Celebrity speculation begins: are Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Freida Pinto coming to TIFF?

Colin Firth and A Single Man director Tom Ford (Image: Karon Liu)

We have a preliminary leak of some stars expected to attend TIFF this September. Martin Knelman of the Star dishes that The King’s Speech (starring Mr. Darcy himself, Colin Firth, and Geoffrey Rush) and Miral (Julian Schnabel’s new film starring Slumdog Millionaire beauty Freida Pinto, Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe) will have their world premieres at the festival.

Both films are already garnering awards hype and have been picked up for North American distribution. The King’s Speech, which also stars Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter, is the true story of Bertie’s (played by Firth) struggle to overcome his nervous stammer before being crowned King George VI. In Miral, another period political drama, Pinto plays a Palestinian girl growing up in a Jerusalem orphanage in 1948 just after the creation of Israel.

We can expect Firth to show (he came last year for A Single Man), and Geoffrey Rush has become a festival party regular. Dafoe is a good bet—he came last year to promote The Antichrist. And now that Pinto is an instantly recognizable face because of the immense success of the TIFF-premiered Slumdog Millionaire, we expect she’ll be back to see what the red carpet is like when screaming fans know your name.

Knelman: For King and country, two new TIFF galas [Toronto Star]