Handling's praise for the film was mirrored by comments from Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director, Toronto International Film Festival who said, "I saw Rian’s debut feature Brick at the Sundance festival and was impressed by his ability to engage both the mind and the heart. We were fortunate enough to premiere his follow-up film The Brothers Bloom. Now, with Looper, Rian has taken his filmmaking to a new level, and we can't wait to present it to the Toronto audience in the most prestigious platform we can offer."

While the film is being touted as a Hollywood blockbuster, according to Bailey, "This is a new kind of Opening Night: an exciting, thinking-person's action film from a director who really understands genre."

In TriStar Pictures, FilmDistrict, and Endgame Entertainment’s Looper, time travel will be invented – but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. Set in a futuristic gangland in the year 2047, a 25-year-old killer named Joseph Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works for a mafia company in as a "Looper." Loopers kill and dispose of agents sent back in time by their employers from corporate headquarters in Shanghai from the year 2077. Joe is getting rich and life is good... until the day the mob decides to "close the loop," sending back Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) for an assassination.

The film is written and directed by Rian Johnson and also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, and Jeff Daniels. Ram Bergman and James D. Stern are producers with executive producers Douglas E. Hansen, Julie Goldstein, Peter Schlessel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dan Mintz. The film will be distributed in Canada by Alliance Films and is scheduled to be released in the United States on September 28 of this year, shortly after TIFF closes.

A schedule of films screening this year is available online at the TIFF website.