Stallone, Twilight to star in Rome film festival

Hollywood veteran Sylvester Stallone will take to the red carpet at Rome's 2012 film festival, which will host 59 world premieres including the hotly-awaited second episode of the vampire-themed Twilight saga. The festival, which runs November 9 to 17, will open with Tajik director Bakhtiar Khudojnazarov's magical realist epic "Waiting for the Sea" and close with Catalan Cesc Gay's ironic comedy "A Gun In Each Hand". Marco Muller, who took up his post as artistic director in May after stepping down as the head of the Venice Film Festival, told a press conference Wednesday that the organisers had "placed our bets on emerging artists". Among the directors on the roll-call is Roman Coppola, the son of US filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, with his comedy "A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III" starring Bill Murray, Charlie Sheen and Anne Bellamy. Muller hinted that cult director Quentin Tarantino, who has recently completed "Django Unchained", may turn up as "a big surprise". Films in competition include American director Larry Clark's "Marfa Girl", Mexican director Enrique Rivero's "Never Die", "And They Call it Summer" by Italy's Paolo Franchi and "Hand in Hand" by French director Valerie Donzelli. The jury will be headed up by US auteur Jeff Nichols whose film "Mud" competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" stars in the 'Alice in the City' line-up for teen audiences, though none of the cast are expected to attend.