The 71st Venice film festival is set to launch with Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, the tale of a moneyed middle-age actor at a creative crossroads. Alejandro González Iñárritu's drama opens the event on August 27 ahead of its official US release in October.

Birdman stars Michael Keaton as a Hollywood actor struggling to shake off his old role in a superhero franchise by staging an adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story. Rumours suggest that Inarritu has structured his film in real time, shooting the action in a series of long takes that recall Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 thriller Rope. Ed Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis round out the cast.

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Mexican-born Inarritu helped kickstart the "buena onda" of Latin-American cinema with his 2001 breakthrough Amores Perros. In booking his place on Venice's first night, he now follows in the footsteps of his countryman Alfonso Cuaron, who opened the 2013 event with Gravity. Following its acclaimed debut at Venice, Cuaron's thriller went on to win seven Academy Awards.

The 71st Venice film festival runs August 27 to September 6, with the French composer Alexandre Desplat already confirmed as this year's jury president.