This year’s TIFF runs September 8 through 18, with in-person festivities the festival’s main focus after largely virtual events the last couple of years. (A digital component, however, will still be part of this year’s fest.) Directed by Michael Grandage, “My Policeman” adds to the festival’s previously announced world-premiere offerings. Those include Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King,” starring Viola Davis,” and Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” the sequel starring seemingly everyone but especially Daniel Craig, back on the case as Benoit Blanc. The full lineup is to come, as is the date for the “My Policeman” premiere.
In “My Policeman,” pop icon Styles stars as Tom, a closeted police officer in 1957 Brighton, U.K., who marries Marion (Emma Corrin), while secretly dating arts curator Patrick (David Dawson). “My Policeman” is directed and executive produced by Grandage (“Genius”) with a script penned by Ron Nyswaner (Oscar nominee for “Philadelphia”) and adapted from Bethan Roberts’ 2012 romance novel of the same name. The film later hops between the 1950s and the 1990s, with Styles’ Tom eventually played by Linus Roache, and Marion now portrayed by Gina McKee, as the couple decide to take in an ailing Patrick (Rupert Everett) after he suffers a stroke. Grandage previously said that while Styles was not the obvious choice for the project, the “Harry’s House” singer/songwriter chased the role after reading the script. “He knew every single beat of it at that meeting. I found that incredibly impressive,” Grandage said. “He knew other people’s lines; he knew all of his lines. He knew why he wanted to talk about it, why one scene worked this way and another worked.” Styles also said that while there won’t be any “peen” in the film, its sex scenes do show a bit of “bum bum.” Watch the teaser trailer here. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
