'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' To Get International Premiere at Berlin Film Fest

COLOGNE, Germany – Stephen Daldry’s September 11th drama Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close starring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Max von Sydow is heading to the Berlin International Film Festival. Warner Bros. is bowing the big-screen version of the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated) stateside in an award-hopeful slot on Dec. 25. The Berlin, out of competition screening will be the film’s international premiere.

Also securing an out-of-competition slot in Berlin is Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War, his period drama centering on the 1937 Rape of Nanking, starring Oscar-winner Christian Bale. On the other end of the Asian theatrical market is Bollywood action film Don - The King is Back featuring Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan, which will also have a special screening at the Berlin festival. Director Farhan Akhtar's sequel to the 2006 Bollywood hit Don shot on location in Berlin last year.

Marley, the hotly-anticipated Bob Marley documentary from acclaimed director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) will have its world premiere at at special screening in Berlin. German helmer Werner Herzog, jury president of the 2010 Berlin Festival, returns next year with his latest doc, Death Row, originally made for the Discovery Channel in the U.S., which also secured a special screening slot.

Other special screenings at Berlin next year include La chispa de la vida, a Spainish drama from Alex de la Iglesia (The Perfect Crime) starring Salma Hayek and Carolina Bang and Keyhole, the lastest from Canadian auteur Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg), which stars Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini and Udo Kier.

Berlin also announced the first three competition titles for the 2012 festival, which runs Feb. 9-19. They are: Captive, the new film from Pilipino art house favorite Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay) which stars French actress Isabelle Huppert; Childish Games, a drama from Spain’s Antonio Chavarrias (You’ll Be Back) and Postcards From the Zoo, the latest drama from Indonesian director Edwin (Blind Pig Wants to Fly).

Berlin will be announcing further competition titles in the coming weeks. British director Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky) will be the president of the international jury at the 2012 Berlin Fest, charged with picking the winners of Berlin’s Gold and Silver Bears.