Bettany & Connelly's Darwin Movie To Open Toronto Film Festival

TORONTO — Real-life couple Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany will kick off the Toronto International Film Festival with the life story of Charles Darwin.

Bettany stars as the theory-of-evolution pioneer and Connelly plays his wife in "Creation," which opens the festival Sept. 10. The film is directed by Jon Amiel, whose credits include "The Core" and "Entrapment."

The Toronto event is among a flurry of film showcases, including the Venice and Telluride festivals, that help launch Hollywood's awards season each year.

Along with "Creation," the Toronto lineup will feature Jane Campion's "Bright Star," a drama about another 19th-century Brit, John Keats. "Bright Star," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, traces the love story of doomed poet Keats (Ben Whishaw) and a passionate neighbor (Abbie Cornish).

Other films announced by festival organizers include Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh's whistle-blower saga "The Informant"; Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner and Tina Fey's fantasy comedy "The Invention of Lying"; Clive Owen's widower drama "The Boys Are Back"; Michael Douglas' womanizer tale "Solitary Man"; Neil Jordan and Colin Farrell's Irish fairy tale "Ondine"; Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek's Depression-era drama "Get Low"; and Tim Blake Nelson's comic story "Leaves of Grass," with Edward Norton in dual roles as twin brothers.

"Creation" premieres in the year marking the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. Adapted from the book "Annie's Box," the movie centers on Darwin's struggle between science and God as he refines his theories amid his wife's deep religious conviction and grief over the death of his young daughter.

"The tension between faith and reason is prominent in contemporary culture, and this intimate look at Darwin puts a human face on a man whose theory remains controversial to this day," said festival director Piers Handling.

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Comments

[DAE]

To say that Darwin's work is still controversial is the same as saying Galileo's work or Newton's work or Einstein's work is still controversial. It is only controversial among those who refuse to accept established scientific facts and willfully accept a medieval world view.

[Witkacy]

Bettany is a great actor, I love his work a lot. But, jeez, Jon Amiel's Darwin movie will no doubt be a big heaping romantic bore of a movie--probably without a lick of science in it.

Naw, thanks - I'll take Peter Greenaway's film on Darwin, instead.

[freethinking moderate]

This movie will start of small and then grow and grow over time.

[LMPE]

I can already hear the world's* religious nut-jobs railing against this movie.

*Actually, they're pretty much limited to the southeastern US.

[rini]

The name of the movie is the icing on the cake. I love that they used the term "creation."

[smilodon1]

If we like the movie does that make us creationists?

[Bcasey11]

C. Darwin also believed in social darwinism, which includes white people being superior to blacks, asians, jewish heritage etc...

[Bill Bancroft]

Darwin did not believe in the superior white race. Stop spreading lies.

[Readbetweentheelevens]

"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life."

That's the entire title of Darwin's book.

[OttoMann]

"Social Darwinism" was coined by Herbert Spencer many years after Darwin published "Origin of Species." Spencer was a complete loon -- he would have fit in perfectly with the current Limbaugh & Fox News nuts, the same ones who, by the way, try to deny evolution.

"Evolution is a fact amply demonstrated by the fossil record and by contemporary molecular biology. Natural selection is a successful theory devised to explain the fact of evolution."
--Carl Sagan

The only people who would dispute the above quotation would be non-scientists who are over their heads and out of their league, and only make fools of themselves when they attempt to enter the discussion.

[Dave24]

Not true. But even if it were, what Darwin believes has little to do with the science he discovered. Newton believed in alchemy, which was dead wrong. But his theories of gravitation and the like were true nonetheless.

[gawd]

Where did you learn that? Ben Stein and his magnificent misquoting movie?

[Steamboater]

Are you taling about the survivaal of the fittest? If so, that's only something perverted by by bigots to make themsleves feel superior to others and in many cases literally destroy those these low self-esteem bigots hate.

[Steamboater]

They'll probably ban "Creation" in Tennessee.

[jerny]

I am a Tennessean with a Biology degree and am a Christian. It is possible to believe in evolution and God at the same time. I am excited about the movie and I hope that it opens peoples eyes.

[ftaco2004]

Say what you want, but most bloggers will simply mock you until no end. If you find no hate in those words, then I say keep posting. Many don't realize there is a gray area and not black/white.

[Dave24]

The bible says God made the animals and man in their present forms. Evolution is all about common descent, connecting all of us through random mutation, weeded out by natural selection. They're incompatible.

[gawd]

I'm an atheist, but thank god! lol I think people can believe in both!

[Steamboater]

And I lived there for 15 years, 15 years too long.

[JaneQCitizen]

Yes, it's possible, but not in any shape or form logical.

[asgspifs]

Sounds interesting. However, I'd like to point out that Darwin's theory of evolution is only controversial among those who are ignorant of it.

[golgibody]

Any excuse to see Jennifer Connelly ::swoon::

[isis]

Historians paint him as a kind man who even had respect for worms. And she was a Wedgewood--an anti-slavery family who made the cameo of a slave in chains that said "Am I not a man and a brother." I'm anticipating a good movie. And happy birthday!

[rini]

I'm hoping, probably in vain, that people who are not certain about evolution will see this movie and read Dawkin's book.

[Eeesh]

hope they got some real Galapagos Isles film

[marignymitch]

Already banned in Texas!

[Hirnlego]

whoops. Browser errors..

[Hirnlego]

Seems interesting.
And Dawkins new book about evolution will be out this year too, called " The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution".

[Hirnlego]

Seems interesting.
And Dawkins new book about evolution will be out this year too, called " The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution"