Lineup Announced for 2012 New Yorker Festival

September 5, 2012, 11:32 am

By DAVE ITZKOFF

The first United States showing of the film version of “Cloud Atlas” â€" as well as a rare showing-up by its co-directors Andy and Lana Wachowski â€" will be one of the marquee events of the 2012 New Yorker Festival. On Wednesday organizers announced the lineup for the annual festival, which features public events with various cultural luminaries and contributors to The New Yorker magazine, and runs this year from Oct. 5 through 7. Among its highlights is a premiere screening of “Cloud Atlas,” adapted from the David Mitchell novel, followed by a conversation with the Wachowski siblings (“The Matrix,” “Speed Racer”) and their co-director, Tom Tykwer. (The “Cloud Atlas” team will be interview ed by Aleksandar Hemon, who wrote about them in the current issue of The New Yorker.)

Other festival events include a live performance by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of the IFC series “Portlandia,” followed by a conversation with Margaret Talbot; a discussion on period acting with John Slattery (“Mad Men”), Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), Cherry Jones (“Doubt”) and Jennifer Ehle (“The Coast of Utopia”); and a panel called “The Future of Sitcoms,” which will feature the TV show runners Greg Garcia (“Raising Hope”), Nahnatchka Khan (“Don't Trust the B- in Apartment 23”) Michael Schur (“Parks and Recreation”) and Mike White (“Enlightened”) in conversation with the New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum.

Further interviews planned for the festival will feature the rock band Vampire Weekend with Atul Gawande; the singer-songwriter Norah Jones with Sasha Frere-Jones; the graphic novelist Alison Bechdel (“Are You My M otherr?”) with Judith Thurman; Patti Smith with Paul Muldoon; and Ben Stiller with Tad Friend.

Tickets will go on sale at noon on Sept. 14 and will be available online at newyorker.com/festival.