Colossal will receive its world premiere, along with Ben Wheatley’s 1970s thriller Free Fire and a new Amanda Knox documentary

Anne Hathaway’s sci-fi thriller Colossal will receive its world premiere at this year’s Toronto film festival.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Oliver Stone’s film Snowden.
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The latest batch of announcements also includes world premieres for the new film from director Ben Wheatley and adocumentary about Amanda Knox.

In Colossal, directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Hathaway stars as a woman who leaves her job and boyfriend in New York and discovers a psychic connection to a giant creature destroying South Korea. The offbeat drama has already courted controversy after Japanese company Toho launched a lawsuit alleging similarities with Godzilla. A settlement was reached last October.

Toronto will also see the first screening of Free Fire, a 1970s-set thriller from Wheatley, whose film High Rise received its world premiere at last year’s festival. The film stars Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy and Armie Hammer and focuses on an arms deal that has gone wrong. It will kick off the Midnight Madness strand.

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The world premiere of Blair Witch, the 2016 sequel to the 1999 surprise hit, will also feature in the same section. It comes from You’re Next director Adam Wingard, and stars another set of unknowns heading into the forest to make a documentary.

A new documentary, Amanda Knox, promises “unprecedented access” to those involved with the controversial case of Meredith Kercher’s murder. Actor-turned-director Fisher Stevens will also bring his environmental documentary The Turning Point to the festival, which includes interviews conducted by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Morgan Spurlock will unveil his new film, Rats, billed as a horror documentary focusing on rodents and the “disease, death and psychological trauma” they spread across the world.

Other additions include Message from the King, a drama starring Chadwick Boseman; My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, a comedy starring John Cameron Mitchell, Susan Sarandon and Lena Dunham; and The Belko Experiment, a horror from Wolf Creek director Greg McLean.

The new set of films join the previously announced lineup, which includes world premieres of Oliver Stone’s Snowden and Peter Berg’s fact-based disaster-thriller Deepwater Horizon.

The Toronto film festival runs from 8-18 September.