Edward Norton's 'Motherless Brooklyn' to close NYFF 2019

Actor Edward Norton's upcoming directorial "Motherless Brooklyn" will bring the curtains down on 2019 edition of New York Film Festival.

The film, which is Norton's second venture as a director since 2000's "Keeping the Faith", will make its New York premiere at Alice Tully Hall on October 11, the NYFF organisers said in a statement.

"NYFF has been my hometown festival for nearly 30 years, and it's consistently one of the best curated festivals in the world. Every year I look forward to meeting up with old friends and colleagues to go watch the year's best films in their program. NYFF always perfectly straddles everything I love about the movies.

"They balance serious audiences and thoughtful conversations about film with just the right level of glamour and celebratory fun. To have this particular film -- which grew out of my love affair with New York -- selected for Closing Night is just a huge thrill... a dream come true, actually," Norton said.

Adapted from Jonathan Lethem's novel of the same, the story is set in New York of 1950s. It follows Lionel Essrog, a private investigator with Tourette syndrome who works to solve the mystery of his mentor's murder.

"He himself drawn into a multi-layered conspiracy that expands to encompass the city's ever-growing racial divide and the devious personal and political machinations of a Robert Moseslike master builder, played by Alec Baldwin," the official summary of the film read.

The cast also includes Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Leslie Mann and Cherry Jones.

Kent Jones, Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair, said, "Edward Norton has taken Jonathan Lethem's novel as a jumping-off point to craft a wildly imaginative and extravagant love letter to New York, a beautifully told hard-boiled yarn grounded in the mid-20th century history of the city. What a way to close the festival."