It may seem stranger than fiction, but George Clooney's latest film, paranormal comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats," was inspired by real events.

"It's funny, there are things that are made up in this screenplay, but the wackiest things are actually the real ones," said Clooney

Like starring alongside a goat.

Clooney's role as Lyn Cassady, an operative of the New Earth Army, required him to play opposite the farmyard animal to demonstrate the army's psychic warfare strategies, among them the ability to kill goats by staring at them.

Known for his dry sense of humor, the actor said of his four-legged co-star: "This goat was a particularly nice goat. The goat was a great actor."

Read more of this article on CNN's The Screening Room here.

Designer Tom Ford has made the move from runway to the big screen with a flourish with his directorial debut “A Single Man,”  a highly stylized account of a gay college professor dealing with the loss of his lover.

Colin Firth has sparked Oscar buzz with his performance, which won him the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival, and the Weinstein Company bought distribution rights for the movie at Toronto. That means the public will soon get their own chance to judge whether designer-turned-director Ford is as successful behind the camera as he was in bringing sexy silhouettes to the catwalk.

The former creative head at Gucci isn’t the only one to find a second calling in the movies. He joins a long list of "hyphen" directors - musicians, journalists and artists who have switched careers to become filmmakers.

Singers alone could fill up a list. Madonna made her directorial debut last year with "Filth and Wisdom," which was received with about as much as enthusiasm as her earlier attempts at acting, while heavy metal rocker Rob Zombie, who revived the "Halloween" franchise and is reportedly lined up to remake "The Blob," has made a name in horror films.

To be sure, some have been far more successful than others. One of the most notable crossovers of late has been British artist and Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen, who made a splash at Cannes last year with "Hunger." His picture about an IRA hunger striker won the Camera d'Or for best first feature film at the fest.

Former entertainment journalist and film critic Rod Lurie, who broke out with his 2000 film “The Contender” starring Joan Allen as a Vice President nominee under scrutiny, has also developed credibility as a director of political films.

The most successful crossover of all? Perhaps Woody Allen, who started out as a stand-up comic before taking up position behind the camera. But you tell us, who do you think are the best film directors to cross over from other fields? Tell us in the comments below.

If you’ve ever been fired or found yourself to be the casualty of a corporate downsizing, George Clooney’s latest film “Up in the Air” could ring all too true.

Clooney stars as a so-called “career transition consultant” who crisscrosses the country firing people in the Jason Reitman film, which has been generating buzz at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. 

Are you ready to watch films about the recession or is the stress still too close to home? Share your comments below.

Toronto, which started September 10 and runs until September 19, is one of the key fall film festivals that can shape the race for film awards.

Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who does his job with a remote coolness and revels in racking up air miles. But his elite business traveler status comes under threat when a new colleague proposes firing people via video conferences instead of in person.

The drama is the third film directed by Reitman, who was behind “Thank You for Smoking” and indie hit “Juno,” and is one of a number of films at Toronto this year to reflect on the fallout of the economic turmoil.

But while films like Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” take a provocative look, “Up in the Air” angles for a more introspective examination that goes beyond the pain of job loss.

“The connective tissue is that this is a movie about a man who is searching for purpose in his life, and what seems to be the most heartbreaking result of losing your job is people in the middle of their life searching for purpose,” Reitman told reporters at a press conference during the festival.

Reitman said he started writing the script as a satire, but over the six years it took him to write the movie, the world changed. He realized what once were humorous scenes about people getting fired weren’t funny anymore and decided to take a dramatic approach.

If the film gives off an air of authenticity, that’s because Reitman took out an ad seeking real people who were out of work and filmed those who responded talking about what it was like to lose their job. He said there was a “heartbreaking” response and he ended up featuring 25 real voices in the film.

Clooney said that while working on the film, which is one of two movies he has at Toronto, it became clear that it was less a comedy and much more about real people, and it suddenly felt more timely than ever.

“We ended up I think, fortunately, being able to tell a story that’s sort of important to talk about right now,” he told reporters at a press conference.

For his part, he's earned glowing reviews for his performance. “Clooney has scarcely ever been more magnetic onscreen than he is here as Ryan Bingham,” industry magazine Variety said, while Reitman referred to Clooney’s turn as one his most “vulnerable” performances to date.

We’ll be watching to see if viewers think the same. Like the rest of the films in the Toronto line-up, “Up in the Air” is in contention for the People’s Choice Award at the festival, which is voted on by festival audiences and will be announced September 19.

For more on the Toronto Film Festival, watch The Screening Room on CNN at the following times: Wednesday 23 September: 0930, 1730, Saturday 26 September: 0930, 1800, 2130, Sunday 27 September: 0630, 1830, Monday 28 September: 0400 (all times GMT)

Toronto is recognized universally as being the start of awards season and the place where studios launch their Oscar campaigns. You can always tell which films they’re going to push by the relative lavishness of the parties. My suspicions were aroused last year by the oyster mountain at Fox Searchlight’s "Slumdog Millionaire" party.

I felt the same inkling at the Blackberry/Lionsgate "Precious" party, as foie gras crostini were pressed on me, that we will be seeing much more of this fine film and in particular Mo'Nique's much talked about performance.

Film festivals can often start with a bang and slowly fizzle until all that is left are some straggly-looking journalists sitting around eating stale sandwiches and trying to file copy on ancient laptops.

But this year, the Toronto International Film Festival flipped things around launching on a low-key note with Jon Amiel’s Charles Darwin biopic "Creation" starring couple Jennifer Connolly and Paul Bettany. Despite good reviews, film has failed, thus far, to secure a U.S. distributor or much coverage.

Things only really started to get going at the weekend with the premiere of Iraq war satire “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges (aka "The Dude"). The weekend's other big hitter was and "Up in the Air," also starring Clooney, which had critics raving and the Oscar pundits buzzing.

Clooney walked the carpet for both films with a bandaged hand, which he also had at Venice; but declined to do any other interviews, which is a shame because I imagine interviewing him would be fun.

"Capitalism: A Love Story" had its first public outing on Sunday to the usual Michael Moore film love/hate reception. However you feel about Moore, the film is certainly entertaining and speaks to the despair of America's working class during tough economic times. Moore has sympathy: "It’s crazy," he tells me, "We live in a democracy. There’s supposed to be some kind of equitable distribution of something here. It’s not set up for just a few to be calling the shots and everyone else scrambling for what’s left."

The festival is also careful to make things fun for the city it calls home, showcasing various events in public space Yonge-Dundas Square. A crowd of blood covered zombies lurched there through the city to greet horror icon George Romero, with one over-zealous zombie drooling blue goo onto our cameraman’s white sneaker.

The day after, the square was taken over by a roller derby to celebrate actress Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut "Whip It," which drew crowds of press and onlookers eager for Barrymore and star Ellen Page to recreate their recent smooch in Marie Claire magazine.