‘Gravity’ To Open Venice Film Festival In World Premiere

Alfonso Cuarón‘s 3D deep space thriller Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, will open the 70th Venice Film Festival in an out of competition berth. The Warner Bros film will debut on the Lido on August 28. Bullock plays a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission alongside a veteran astronaut played by Clooney. Disaster strikes during a seemingly routine spacewalk, leaving the two completely alone — tethered to one another and spiraling into the blackness. This is the first high-profile world premiere that Venice has announced thus far. Last year it was notably the launch pad for such pics as Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Harmony Korine’s Springbreakers.

Cuarón’s first film in Venice was 2001’s Y Tu Mamá También which won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay as well as the Marcello Mastroianni Award for stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna. In 2006, the director’s Children Of Men won the Best Cinematography Golden Osella for Emmanuel Lubezki, who is also the DP on Gravity. Venice runs this year from August 28-September 7. Click over for the Gravity trailer: