Elijah Wood’s ‘Bookworm’ to Open Fantasia Fest

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The 2024 Fantasia Film Festival will open with a world premiere for Bookworm, the Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher starrer from New Zealand filmmaker Ant Timpson.

The indie reteams Wood with Come to Daddy director Timpson and saw the Lord of the Rings actor return to New Zealand for production. In Bookworm, Fisher plays a 12-year-old girl whose life is turned upside down when her long-absent American magician father (Wood) comes to look after her, and together they take an ill-advised camping trip into the rugged New Zealand wilderness to find a mythological beast that leads to increasingly absurd and treacherous adventures.

Among other new titles added to the lineup for Fantasia’s 28th edition are world bows for Alexander J. Farrell’s The Beast Within, starring Kit Harrington; Isaac Ezban’s dystopian coming-of-age tale Parvulos; and Vivieno Caldinelli’s Scared Shitless, starring Steven Ogg and Daniel Doheny.

There are also international premieres for Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte’s Cannes title The Count of Monte-Cristo; and Matthew Fifer’s Haze, starring David Pittu and Brian J. Smith.

As the second wave of titles was announced by the Montreal genre festival Friday, Fantasia also announced an upcoming career tribute for Vincenzo Natali, the Cube director. His other movie credits include Spice, the ghost story Haunter and Netflix’s In the Tall Grass.

Natali has also been busy directing episodic TV, including for NBC’s Hannibal, FX’s The Strain, HBO’s Westworld, Starz’s American Gods, as well as Netflix’s Locke & Key and Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

The Fantasia Film Festival, which will release its complete lineup July 3, is set to run from July 18 to Aug. 4.

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