A cav­al­cade of big names have been tipped for a stuffed Venice Film Festival

Next week, the selec­tion com­mit­tee at the Venice Film Fes­ti­val will pull back the cur­tain on their picks for this year’s pro­gram, but as any­one attuned to the fes­ti­val cir­cuit already knows, the wild spec­u­la­tion that comes first is half the fun. Today, a new report on prospec­tive Venice pre­mieres from Vari­ety has opened the flood­gates on the rumor mill, a mixed metaphor that has nonethe­less left us with lots of gos­sip to pore over.

After a Cannes some­what light on auteur star wattage, a host of name-brand direc­tors will bring their lat­est work to the Lido this Sep­tem­ber. Some big col­lab­o­ra­tions like­ly head­ing for an Ital­ian debut include Olivia Wilde​‘s Don’t Wor­ry Dar­ling, in which Flo­rence Pugh dis­cov­ers her mar­riage to Har­ry Styles is a lie; Luca Guadagni­no​‘s Bones and All, in which Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met falls for a come­ly can­ni­bal; and Andrew Dominik​‘s Blonde, in which Ana de Armas plays Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe dur­ing the most going-through-it days of the trag­ic starlet’s life.

The long-dor­mant direc­tor Todd Field is ready to show off his first fea­ture in a decade and a half, the art-world dra­ma Tár star­ring Cate Blanchett as a genius fac­ing down a major exhi­bi­tion. Out­side of the Com­pe­ti­tion sec­tion, it sounds like this year’s Life­time Achieve­ment Gold­en Lion hon­oree Paul Schrad­er will share his new film The Mas­ter Gar­den­er, which will intro­duce us to hor­ti­cul­tur­ist Narvel Roth (played by Joel Edger­ton).

Net­flix is com­ing out in full force, with the rest of their fall slate tipped to join Blonde in the Com­pe­ti­tion sec­tion. That accounts for Noah Baum­bach​‘s ambi­tious lit­er­ary adap­ta­tion White Noise, with Adam Dri­ver and Gre­ta Ger­wig as a cou­ple plagued by an Air­borne Tox­ic Event; Ale­jan­dro Gon­za­lez Iñár­ritu​‘s lat­est mouth­ful Bar­do, or False Chron­i­cle of a Hand­ful of Truths; and Romain Gavras‘ riotous firestarter Athena, which tracks a protest in France as it spins out of con­trol into chaos.

It’s shap­ing up to be an espe­cial­ly packed year for the offi­cial starter’s pis­tol on fall fes­ti­val sea­son, with the cream of the crop sure­ly des­tined for fur­ther play at the Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val short­ly after Venice. And with next week’s unveil­ing of the full slate, there will undoubt­ed­ly be even more to look for­ward to — viva cinema!