Revised, error corrected: When Tuesday morning’s final roster of Toronto Film Festival selections is announced, I for one would love to see Jim Sheridan‘s Brothers (MGM, 12.4) included. It’s a remake of Susanne Bier‘s 2004 Danish-language original about a younger “bad” brother (Jake Gyllenhaal in Sheridan’s version) stepping into the familial shoes of his older “good” brother Tobey Maguire) after the latter disappears during an enemy skirmish in Afghanistan.

Gyllenhaal, Portman, Maguire

Natalie Portman plays the wife-mother whose loyalties shift, or at least adapt to new realities. Sam Shepard plays the gruff and disapproving pater familias, the father of Gyllenhaal and Maguire. David Benioff (The Kite Runner, The 25th Hour) adapted the screenplay.
Over the last couple of days I’ve written and called Sheridan (who’s in town) to ask if Toronto might happen, and I’ve heard nothing back. I asked incoming MGM marketing guy Mike Vollman, who said something along the lines of “I haven’t heard” or something like that. I also asked MGM corporate guy Jeff Pryor and he, too, claimed ignorance of the particulars, etc. You can interpret these three guys saying nothing as an indication of something or not. Probably not, I’m guessing, but it’s only 72 hours to Tuesday morning.

Tobey Maguire (middle), Natalie Portman (r.) talking to unidentified hooded figure on set of Brothers.