Theron, Penn films to premiere in Toronto

The Toronto International Film Festival will host the world premieres of "Battle in Seattle," starring Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson, and Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," organizers said.

The festival, which runs from September 6 to September 15, also has booked North American premieres for the latest films from Andrew Dominik, Todd Haynes, Joe Wright and Paul Haggis, each of which are scheduled to bow first at the Venice International Film Festival (August 29-September 8).

Theron's boyfriend, Stuart Townsend, makes his directing debut with "Battle in Seattle," which recounts the 1999 clash between demonstrators and police amid the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Joshua Jackson, Ray Liotta, Michelle Rodriguez and Channing Tatum round out the cast.

Penn's "Into the Wild" is a fact-based portrait of a young man who gives up all luxuries to live in the Alaskan wilderness. The movie stars Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt and Vince Vaughn, and is due for a late-September theatrical release via Paramount Vantage.

Other titles include Dominik's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," the Brad Pitt crime drama from Warner Bros. Pictures, and Brit director Wright's "Atonement," a classic British romance drama from Focus Features that stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.

Also due here is Haynes' "I'm Not There," a Bob Dylan-inspired movie starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger, set for a November release by the Weinstein Co.; and Paul Haggis' "In The Valley of Elah," a Warner Bros. September release about parents, played by Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon, who attempt to find their son after he returns from the war in Iraq.