The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the Venice Film Festival has officially released its screening lineup. The 81st Venice Film Festival is set to commence on August 28 and will run through September 7. The festival’s program will feature upcoming big releases, some will be in competition. Titles such as Angelina Jolie’s new film, Maria, will be screening for competition. Per THR, Maria is a “new biopic from Chilean director Pablo Larrain (Jackie, Spencer), in which she stars as famed Opera diva Maria Callas.” The cast includes Kodi Smit-McPhee, Haluk Bilginer, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, and Valeria Golino.
The big title on the slate is the much-anticipated sequel to 2019’s Todd Phillips film Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux will bow in Venice this year. The follow-up takes on the musical genre and adds Lady Gaga to the story as the Harley Quinn to Joaquin Phoenix’s Authur Fleck, who is the Joker. Recently, the movie’s casting director was teasing that Gaga’s performance will “blow your mind.” Francine Maisler, the casting director, would profess, “She’s so good in it, you guys. She’s going to blow your mind. […] I saw it and I was really surprised. I mean, we all knew what she could do in A Star is Born, but I thought, ‘Oh, well, that’s kind of in her wheelhouse.’ Something she could do and just be real. But this… Man, she’s good. Joaquin blows your mind, but that she could keep up with him, and be real — and not just wiped off the screen by what that role is and what the performance is — shows she’s good.”
Another big film that will be screening at the festival will be the new George Clooney/Brad Pitt crime comedy Wolfs. This film, however, will not be in competition. Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) directed and wrote Wolfs, which centers on two lone-wolf fixers assigned to the same job. Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, and Poorna Jagannathan star alongside Clooney and Pitt, and the project hails from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The film reuintes Clooney and Pitt as rival fixers called into to dispose of a corpse by their shadowy employer, only for the corpse to be far from dead, and in the possession of a massive amount of drugs. Going by the teaser trailer, the film has serious buddy-comedy vibes, mixed with a bit of gunplay and action.