Odeon Films and Focus Features are banking on strong word of mouth and buzz from the Toronto International Film Festival for the Sept. 21 wide release of David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, which opens exclusively in three Canadian cities Friday.

The thriller, which has won rave reviews from critics, bows on five screens in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, six days after its world premiere at TIFF.

Mark Slone, SVP of Odeon Films, tells Playback Daily the distrib would have preferred to go wide Friday, but wanted to follow the release pattern of Focus.

‘It’s to respect their strategy. If we were to do it alone without a U.S. partner we probably would’ve just gone wide all at once,’ Slone says. ‘The reality is Cronenberg is a national treasure, and you don’t have to slowly build awareness for his movies in Canada,’ he adds.

The 80/20 U.K./Canada copro, which expands to 200 screens next week, stars Viggo Mortensen as the mysterious driver of a ruthless Russian crime family, who crosses paths with a midwife (Naomi Watts) when she uncovers potential evidence against them.

Also opening hot off its run at TIFF is Jodie Foster’s vigilante turn in the crime thriller The Brave One, which opens wide through Warner Bros.

Meanwhile, Odeon sister Alliance Films will open the counter-programmed comedy Mr. Woodcock, starring Billy Bob Thornton, on 264 screens, while the Richard Gere actioner The Hunting Party bows on 30 in cities including Calgary, Edmonton, London, Halifax and Ottawa.

The musical drama Across the Universe, from director Julie Taymor (Frida) and another TIFF selection, also opens small tomorrow via Columbia Pictures in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, before going wide next week.

Coming up, Maple Pictures will release the comedy Good Luck Chuck opposite the Alberta-shot The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, from Warner Bros., and Odeon’s Silk, from Montreal director François Girard.