TIFF 2012: Looper, a time travel thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, set to open the festival

At a press conference at the TIFF Bell Lightbox this morning, Piers Handling, TIFF’s CEO, and Cameron Bailey, its artistic director, announced this year’s opening gala: Looper, an action thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a time-travelling assassin whose bosses hire his older self (Bruce Willis) to assassinate him. In other words: Inception + yippee-ki-yay + a little flux capacitation. The film, which is directed by Rian Johnson of The Brothers Bloom fame, also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano and Jeff Daniels, so it’s a safe bet they’ll all be making red carpet appearances this year. At the announcement, Handling said, “It’s a smart genre film. It’s a young filmmaker, a filmmaker to watch. It’s entertaining and it will help [attendees] get their heads into the rest of the festival.” It’s also not Score: The Hockey Musical, which opened 2010’s TIFF, so there’s that to celebrate too. Check back later today for a full roundup of this year’s galas, special presentations and, of course, the stars attached to all of them.

Correction: Apparently, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stays put in time and his bosses send Bruce Willis back to his time to be killed. Also, time travel plots are extremely confusing.