‘The Villainess,’ Takashi Miike’s ‘Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’ to Open Fantasia Festival

The Fantasia International Film Festival, North America’s largest genre film festival, on Wednesday released the first wave of titles for its upcoming 21st edition.

The festival will open with North American premieres for Korean director Jung Byung-gil’s The Villainess and Takashi Miike’s Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

The Villainess, which bowed in Cannes, stars Kim Ok-bin as a trained assassin blackmailed into working for the government. And Miike’s live-action version of bes-tselling manga Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, to debut in Neuchatel, is the first co-production between Warner Bros. Japan and Toho, the Japanese company behind the iconic Godzilla franchise.

Fantasia will also feature a special screening of Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, based on the French comic series and starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen and Rihanna. The fest will host world premieres for Ted Geoghegan’s sophomore feature Mohawk, starring Kaniehtiio Horn; and Steve Mitchell’s King Cohen, a documentary about indie filmmaker Larry Cohen, with appearances by Martin Scorsese, John Landis, J.J. Abrams and Joe Dante.

Also getting first looks in Montreal are Ryan Prows’ Lowlife; Gela Babluani’s Money’s Money, starring Benoit Magimel and Olivier Rabourdin; and Brazilian writer-director Gabriela Amaral Almeida’s Friendly Beast.

Elsewhere, there’s an international premiere for You Only Live Once, the feature debut of Spanish stunt coordinator Federico Cueva, which stars Peter Lanzani, Gerard Depardieu and Hugo Silva; and a North American premiere for Oscar-winning French director Stefan Ruzowitzky’s Cold Hell.

Fantasia, which is set to run July 13-Aug. 2, will unveil its full 2017 lineup July 5.

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