Helen Mirren plays Patricia Highsmith in A Talent for Murder at TIFF

Helen Mirren has brought writer Patricia Highsmith to the screen in A Talent for Murder, a crime drama that has had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film is directed by Anton Corbijn from a screenplay by Joanna Murray-Smith, as set out in Deadline's TIFF Studio interview published on 14 September. Corbijn, Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich and Olivia Cooke appeared together for that festival panel.

Mirren, an Oscar winner, portrays Highsmith, the author behind Ripley. Ehrenreich portrays Edward Ridgeway, with Mirren and Ehrenreich starring as opponents, according to festival listings and Deadline's festival line-up coverage. The story is described as a chamber thriller, a thriller built around a small cast in close quarters (TIFF).

Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment will handle the release in the United States, meaning the cinema rollout in America, as reported in the same Deadline interview. A US distributor buys or takes on the rights for that territory and then books cinemas and markets the film.

Research was hard. Mirren said there was not a lot of film or material on Highsmith, especially from later in life. She described Highsmith as "very private towards the end of her life, very cut away, very locked away," in the Deadline studio conversation.

That privacy shaped the preparation. With little late-life footage to study, Mirren had to build the performance from writing and accounts rather than mimicry. It is a short cast list. The focus stays on two people in a room.

Vanity Fair published a first look at Mirren as Highsmith on 26 August, ahead of the Toronto premiere, after speaking to the actor about embodying the writer (Vanity Fair).

What makes this stand out for festival audiences is the pairing. One figure is a celebrated crime writer with a guarded public image. The other is a younger challenger. The film puts them face to face and lets the tension play out.