Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Gravity’ opening Venice Film Fest — will it bow at TIFF, too?

Set to hit theatres on Oct. 4, director Alfonso Cuarón's long-in-development sci-fi film “Gravity” is finally lining up some high-profile film festival dates in advance of its release.

Starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, the Mexican filmmaker’s follow up to 2006's "Children of Men" will open the 70^th annual Venice Film Festival in Italy in late August. The harrowing 3D film centres on two astronauts (Clooney and Bullock) who find themselves adrift in orbit after their ship and space station are destroyed. In other words, “Gravity” is exactly the kind of star-driven drama that another big fest -- the Toronto International Film Festival -- is fond of rolling out for its red carpets just a week or so after Venice.

The proximity of the film’s Italian premiere date to TIFF’s September kickoff, combined with the movie's star power and $80 million budget, make a gala premiere for “Gravity” at TIFF all the more likely. It’s almost unheard of for a major film to play Venice and not play TIFF, and given Hollywood’s penchant for using the Canadian fest as a springboard for big fall releases and future Oscar contenders, the odds are high that “Gravity” – along with Clooney and Bullock – will be visiting Toronto in a few months.

“Gravity” isn’t the only notable release likely to be at both Venice and TIFF later this summer. The two very competitive film fests have long shared programming due to their closeness on the calendar, and 2013 is unlikely to be any different.

Ron Howard's Formula 1 biopic "Rush" and Paul Greengrass's hostage drama “Captain Phillips" are both rumoured to be in the offing for the festivals -- as is "Shame" filmmaker Steve McQueen’s "12 Years a Slave," starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Brad Pitt. Many also expect to see the latest from filmmakers Spike Lee ("Oldboy") and Terry Gilliam ("Zero Theorem") at both Venice and TIFF.

With home and native premieres at TIFF all but a certainty, it's also probable that "An Enemy" and "Devil's Knot" -- the latest films from Canadian directors Denis Villeneuve ("Incendies") and Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter") -- will debut at Venice. If the films are ready to go in time for TIFF, it's likely that they will also be primed for the Italian fest.

We're still several weeks away from any formal line-up announcements by either festival, so expect the speculation to continue until then.