A vengeful James Bond, George W. Bush, Mike Tyson, Bobby Sands, Che Guevara and the late Hunter S. Thompson will be the anti-heroes of The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival next month.

The programme, announced today, includes a record number of world and European premieres from 43 countries.

Fittingly, in the BFI’s 75th year, the lineup includes the festival’s strongest roster of home-grown titles for more than a decade, among them new offerings from Michael Winterbottom, Danny Boyle and Richard Eyre.

However, it is the rogue’s gallery of strong leading males – both fictional and historical – that most catches the eye. No film this year is more calculated to provoke than W., which will have its European premiere on Thursday, October 23, as The Times Gala.

Oliver Stone’s film has an all-star cast and – to judge from the trailer, set to What a Wonderful World – great dollops of satirical anger to portray the rise to power of the current President of the United States.

Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) plays the second President Bush as a hard-drinking, frivolous college brat whose life is turned around after he finds God.

“Partying, chasing tail, driving drunk. Who do you think you are: a Kennedy?” demands the first President Bush (James Cromwell, who played the Duke of Edinburgh in The Queen). “You’re a Bush. Act like one.”

Stone is one of a cavalcade of leading directors showing new work in London this year. Ron Howard’s Frost/ Nixon, based on Peter Morgan’s play, will open the festival, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionairewill close it. Other British films include Winterbottom’s Genova, Eyre’s The Other Man and Richard Jobson’s New Town Killers, starring Dougray Scott as a hedge fund manager who gets his kicks hunting children from housing estates in the mean streets of Edinburgh.

There are also films from Australia, Iceland, Mexico and Senegal, and most places in between.

Alex Gibney’s Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson, narrated by the maverick journalist’s friend Johnny Depp, and James Toback’s Tyson, are two of the 19 films competing for the Grierson Award for best feature-length documentary.

After all that, if festival audiences find themselves in need of a little escapism, they will have the chance to attend the first public screening of Marc Forster’s Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond film, immediately after its world premiere in Leicester Square, but outside the festival, on October 29.

There is no desire to compete directly with the likes of Cannes, Berlin or Venice and two of the festival’s chief selling points remain its accessibility to the public and its function as a showcase for the best work from other festivals on the calendar.

James Harding, the Editor of The Times, said: “Yet again the programme for The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival has produced an outstanding selection of films with an extraordinary blend of cultures, themes, and formats ensuring something for all tastes and all ages. The London Film Festival has a breathtaking schedule that mixes films from those new to the scene, as well as great offerings from established film-makers.

It is a programme that clearly demonstrates London’s role as a unique showcase for the industry. We are thrilled to be part of the festival for our sixth year as title sponsor.”

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