News

Xavier Dolan is x-ing out his retirement plans.

After announcing he was stepping away from filmmaking in 2023, the 2024 Cannes Un Certain Regard jury president confirmed he has a new film in the works. Dolan made the announcement during a masterclass at the Lumiere Film Festival while launching his book, “A Friendship Through Film.” The event marked the 10th anniversary of his feature “Mommy.”

Dolan stated that the script for his upcoming feature is completed and that he hopes production will begin in 2025.

“It’s going to be an amalgam of several genres,” Dolan said (via Variety) with the feature “taking place in 1895 in the world of the elite, the Parisian literary world, and in the countryside too.”

He added that there are “certainly horrific aspects or moments,” as well as a “lot of comic elements” in the untitled project.

As for his announced retirement, Dolan spoke about finding his inspiration once again.

Just over a year after announcing he was retiring from filmmaking, Xavier Dolan has confirmed he is working on a new feature project, which he hopes to shoot next year.

The Québécois director was speaking at a masterclass at the Lumiere Film Festival, a fest organized by Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux, in Lyon. Dolan will be hosting a special 10th anniversary screening of his Cannes Jury Prize winner “Mommy” at Lyon’s 2,000-seat auditorium.

He says the script is written and is hoping to shoot it next year. Dolan explained the film won’t be quite a horror movie but there are “certainly horrific aspects or moments,” as well as a “lot of comic elements” in the writing. “It’s going to be an amalgam of several genres.” He also revealed the story “takes place in 1895 in the world of the elite, the Parisian literary world and in the countryside too.

Update: Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan, whose film “Mommy” received the Cannes Jury Prize in 2014, will head the jury of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Joining him on the jury will be “Cuties” director Maïmouna Doucouré, “The Mother of All Lies” helmer Asmae El Moudir, “Phantom Thread” actor Vicky Krieps and film critic Todd McCarthy.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” he said in a statement. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the art of film : stories told truthfully.”

Dolan wrote, directed, produced and starred in his first feature “I Killed My Mother...

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is officially the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard jury president. Dolan, who is a self-taught writer/director, made his feature debut at age 19 with “I Killed My Mother” based on his original short story. The film was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards.

His work has repeatedly been featured at Cannes ever since Dolan’s 2010 sophomore feature “Heartbeats” marked his first entrance in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard program.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” Dolan said in a statement. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the...

Xavier Dolan, the Canadian filmmaker who rose through the ranks at Cannes with films like the Jury Prize winner Mommy, has been named President of the Un Certain Regard Jury, celebrating emerging talent, for the 77th edition of the festival, taking place this summer.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” said Dolan. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the art of film : stories told truthfully.”

A self-taught filmmaker, Dolan made his feature directorial debut at 19 with I Killed My Mother, an adaptation of his own short story, which was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards.

The reboot of Norman Lear’s “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” will be on TBS, which is developing a new version of the classic sitcom starring “Schitt’s Creek” alum Emily Hampshire.

Hampshire will co-write and executive produce along with “Letterkenny” creator Jacob Tierney, who would serve as showrunner. Lear would be a producer as well, via his and Brent Miller’s Act III Productions.

“The kick of kicks as I turn 99 today is learning that TBS is developing ‘Mhmh’ and will allow us to make a new version of it starring Emily Hampshire,” Lear said. “As someone who believes his 99 years on this planet is owed to the amount of laughter he enjoyed through the years, here’s to the next 99. Bless you all!”

The reboot is from Sony Pictures TV.

Hampshire takes over the role originally played by Louise Lasser, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance. The original series,...

AMC Networks’ sci-fi thriller series “Moonhaven,” from creator Peter Ocko, has cast Amara Karan.

Karan joins previously announced stars Emma McDonald, Dominic Monaghan, Kadeem Hardison and Ayelet Zurer. “Moonhaven” is focused on a utopian colony on the moon that may hold the keys to preserving life on Earth, which has become increasingly perilous.

Set 100 years in the future, the suspense thriller follows Bella Sway (McDonald), a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler who finds herself accused of a crime and marooned on the utopian community — set on a 500-square-mile Garden of Eden built on the Moon. Bella is sucked into a conspiracy to gain control of the artificial intelligence responsible for Moonhaven’s miracles, and teams with a local detective to stop the forces that want to destroy Earth’s last hope before they are destroyed themselves.

Karan will play Indira Mare, “Envoy of Io,” the vast and ever-present AI that keeps Moonhaven alive.

Multiple Oscar-winning Chinese-American director Chloé Zhao, whose “Nomadland” launched from the Venice Film Festival last year, is set to return to the Lido as a member of the upcoming fest’s main jury, which will comprise four women and three men.

As previously announced, “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho, another recent multiple Oscar winner, will preside over the jury of the event’s upcoming edition.

They will be serving jury duty on the Lido alongside French actor Virginie Efira, who most recently starred in Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta”; the U.K.’s Cynthia Erivo, who plays Aretha Franklin in the third season of National Geographic’s “Genius” series; and Canadian actor and producer Sarah Gadon who made a splash in Venice in 2011 with her role in David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” and more recently appeared in Xavier Dolan’s “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.”

Italian director...

Lupita Nyong’o and Natalie Portman have both signed up to star in the Apple series ‘Lady in the Lake’ an adaptation of the Laura Lipman novel.

The limited series takes place in 1960s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.

Alma Har’el and Dre Ryan will co-write the series which will also see Har’el writing the pilot and directing. Nyong’o and Portman will also executive produce alongside Ryan and Har’el. Crazyrose’s Jean-Marc Vallée and Nathan Ross will also serve as executive producers, along with Julie Gardner for Bad Wolf America. Lipmman is also an executive producer on the project.

Also in news – Elle Fanning...

Another classic Norman Lear TV series is getting a remake. Sony TV is in development on a new version of Lear’s “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” that would star “Schitt’s Creek” alum Emily Hampshire.

In addition to starring, Hampshire would co-write and executive produce the remake, along with “Letterkenny” creator Jacob Tierney, who would serve as showrunner. Lear would be a producer as well, via his and Brent Miller’s Act III Productions.

Sony is preparing to shop the project to buyers in the coming weeks.

Hampshire takes over the role originally played by Louise Lasser, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance. The original series, which aired from 1976-77, was a groundbreaking send-up of soap operas and a subversive look into America’s media and consumer culture.

According to Sony, the updated version stars Hampshire as a small-town woman who feels like a nobody in every aspect of...

“Schitt’s Creek” star Emily Hampshire has signed on to star as the title character in a new, updated version of Norman Lear’s 1970s syndicated hit “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

Hampshire will also be an executive producer on the project, and co-write the script with Jacob Tierney (“Letterkenny”), who will serve as showrunner. Sony Pictures TV is planning to shop the show to buyers in the coming weeks.

It’s the latest series remake to come out of the Lear cannon, following the recent critically acclaimed reimagining of “One Day at a Time,” and an animated take on “Good Times” that is currently in the works. Lear and Brent Miller’s Act III Prods. is developing the new “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” with Sony, with Lear and Miller as executive producers alongside Hampshire and Tierney.

“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” reunites Hampshire with Tierney, as Hampshire previously starred in Tierney’s film “The Trotsky.

Peas & Carrots: Dolan Gets Caught in a Bad Romance

Xavier Dolan devotees will be happy to note his latest feature, the treacly melodrama Matthias and Maxime, is at least less abrasively formulated as his last two features, the impregnably shrill It’s Only the End of the World (2016) and the abominable The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2018).

As the comparably less verbose title indicates, this latest signals what some might call “a return to form,” however, this is a rather rusted silver lining to champion in a gay panic drama which dwells as gracefully as a mud-slicked pig hunting truffles trapped in its own trough.…...

More than a year since the film competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s latest feature “Matthias & Maxime” has finally landed a distributor. Arthouse streaming and distribution service Mubi has landed VOD and TV rights to the coming-of-age drama in the United States, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (excluding Mexico), and India, and will premiere the film for audiences this summer. A release date is forthcoming.

“Matthias & Maxime” stars Harris Dickinson (breakout from Eliza Hittman’s “Beach Rats”), Gabriel D’Almeida Freitas, Dolan regular Anne Dorval, Pier-Luc Funk, and Dolan himself, who hasn’t starred in one of his own films since 2013’s “Tom at the Farm.” “Matthias & Maxime” (played by D’Almeida Freitas and Dolan) focuses on two men in their late 20s whose friendship changes after they’re asked to kiss for a student short.

Are we getting a sequel to “A Most Violent Year”? That’s what actress Jessica Chastain suggested on New Year’s Day via Twitter with a series of cryptic messages, embedded below. The original film, released in 2014 and directed by J.C. Chandor, is a 1980s-set crime thriller starring Oscar Isaac as an immigrant fuel supplier embroiled in a moral quandary amid the corruption of his oil empire. Chastain co-starred as Isaac’s wife, Anna, in a witchy role outfitted with press-on nails and a Brooklyn accent. “Guess who may be visiting these characters again?” she said on Twitter.

What form such a sequel will take remains an open question. A feature film? A limited series? The original movie, made for $20 million, eked out $12 million worldwide — hardly penetrating the global consciousness but impressing critics with its visual and narrative rendering of 1981 New York. Chastain especially earned praise for her turn as Anna Morales.

Despite the impressive cast of Kit Harington, Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, and Thandie Newton (not including the cut-out Jessica Chastain), Xavier Dolan’s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan has had trouble finding U.S. distribution since its premiere at Tiff 2018 where it received less-than-stellar review. Over a year later, Momentum Pictures has now come on board and the drama about a star’s correspondence with a young boy will be arriving in just a few weeks, in theaters and on VOD. Ahead of the release, the new U.S. trailer has now landed.

Josh Lewis said in his Tiff review, “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, his most ambitious undertaking yet (dealing with three major characters in two different timelines), however carries with it a bizarre desperation to be taken seriously, deploying a lot of the same stylistic tics with a...

Xavier Dolan hasn’t stopped moving since his directorial debut, “I Killed My Mother.” After skipping Cannes, and going Hollywood with his last film, “The Death and Life Of John F. Donovan” starring Natalie Portman, Kit Harington and more (and it still doesn’t have a North American distributor), Dolan has returned to his Montreal roots for “Matthias & Maxime,” which had been welcomed back to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Continue reading ‘Matthias & Maxime’ Trailer: Xavier Dolan Directs & Stars In His New Film About Friendship & Love at The Playlist.

Mars Films, a leading French distribution company that released American indie films such as Oscar winners “12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlight” in France, has been put under financial restructuring and monitoring for six months by a business court in Paris.

The company, which has 23 employees, went into receivership Aug. 1 after it stopped paying creditors. Mars Films has an annual revenue of €36.8 million and a debt of €78.6 million, including more than €20 millions in current liabilities, according to court documents filed earlier this month. Headed by Stephane Celerier and Valerie Garcia, Mars Films was rescued from financial struggles once before, in 2015, by Vivendi, which took a 30% stake in the company.

In spite of its large debts, Mars boasts a strong library of more than 200 films among its assets, which together are worth a total of €107.3 million, according to the court documents. While it’s under financial restructuring, the company will proceed...

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s epic drama “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan” has been sitting on the shelf, at least stateside, since its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival. Boasting Dolan’s most ambitious cast to date — including Kit Harrington, Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Kathy Bates, Thandie Newton, and Susan Sarandon — “Donovan” was met with jeers at the festival, including by IndieWire’s critic Eric Kohn. In a new interview with the Globe and Mail, Dolan now says that the film originally ran a lengthy four hours long. As it stands, the film currently runs a cool two hours.

“I shot the film that I wrote, but the film that I wrote was a 160-page script that made no choices,” Dolan said. “You now want to focus on something [the editing] that I’ve been focusing on for two years and I don’t know how inspired I...

The drama surrounding Xavier Dolan’s film “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan” has all but been forgotten since the film’s debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. After the mostly negative reviews, people ultimately forgot that there was a two-year period of behind-the-scenes turmoil that had film fans on the edge of their seat, wondering what the hell the filmmaker was cooking up.

Continue reading Xavier Dolan’s First ‘John F. Donovan’ Cut Was Over 4 Hours Long With An Omitted Prologue With Actor Michael Gambon at The Playlist.

French-Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan (there is no other word to describe him) has had a busy year. He has two films releasing in 2019, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan with a top-billed cast, and this far more intimate smaller drama doing the festival rounds, Matthias et Maxime represents both the best of Xavier Dolan’s oeuvre and a mature step forward in how restrained and tender his drama can be when not relying on a constant saturation of style. Maxime, or Max, the heart of the film is played by Xavier Dolan himself; a quiet but spirited twenty-something with a traumatic past, a family burden and a birth mark on his face. Matthias, or Matt (Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas), is his childhood friend. They...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Of the many labels Xavier Dolan’s Matthias & Maxime came attached with ahead of its Cannes premiere, few felt as apt as those that billed the Canadian’s eighth feature as “a return.” Three years after railing at Cannes’ “culture of hatred” for the mauling his Grand Prix winner It’s Only The End of the World received from critics–and less than one since the even bigger misfire The Death and Life of John F. Donovan bowed in Toronto–Matthias & Maxime shipped Xavier Dolan back to the festival that first welcomed him in 2009, when his I Killed My Mother left the Directors’ Fortnight with a Camera d’Or for best first feature. Homing in on two best friends grappling with a sprawling bromance, Matthias & Maxime also promised to dwell into the non-heteronormative dynamics Dolan had explored at length since his debut. And after two features set abroad, (the France-quartered...

[Editor’s note: The following post contains spoilers for “Game of Thrones” Season 8]

Kit Harington’s publicist has confirmed (via Variety) the “Game of Thrones” actor checked into a wellness center this month before the HBO series aired its finale. Harington sought professional treatment “to work on some personal issues,” the actor’s publicist said in a statement. Page Six first broke the news, reporting that Harington checked into a Connecticut health retreat for treatment regarding stress and alcohol. Harington has reportedly spent the last month at the wellness center.

“Kit has decided to utilize this break in his schedule as an opportunity to spend some time at a wellness retreat to work on some personal issues,” Harington’s publicist said in a statement to Variety.

Harington revealed earlier this year he sought therapy after Jon Snow’s death in the “Game of Thrones” Season 5 finale. The actor called the interim between Jon’s death and resurrection in the...

The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critic Leonardo Goi and editor Daniel Kasman.Matthias & MaximeDear Danny, How nice it was to read your glowing words on Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or contender. His Parasite belongs, together with a handful of other main competition entries, to a list of Cannes titles I shall be catching up on Saturday, when the festival will run a few repeat screenings ahead of the awards ceremony. With a program as rich and tantalizing as this year’s, it’s virtually impossible not to let a few titles slip past you. And while I may have postponed my rendezvous with the likes of Céline Sciamma, Pedro Almodóvar, and Bong Joon-ho, I did make sure to catch the homecoming of one of Cannes’ youngest regulars, Xavier Dolan. Ever since his 2009 debut feature I Killed My Mother, which found a spot at the 2009 Directors’ Fortnight,...

Xavier Dolan made his long-awaited return to the Cannes Film Festival on May 22 for the world premiere of his latest drama, “Matthias & Maxime.” Critics were favorable to the romance, calling it a return to form for Dolan after back-to-back critical misfires “It’s Only the End of the World” and “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.” Dolan’s latest stars himself and Gabriel D’Almeida Freitas as two friends whose relationship changes after they kiss each other during the making of a student film.

Speaking at the “Matthias & Maxime” press conference, Dolan called out an industry double standard in which films centered around queer characters are almost always labeled “gay films” or “queer films” while movies about relationships between men and women are never defined by their sexuality. While “Matthias & Maxime” deals with a gay storyline, in Dolan’s eyes it’s as much a film and love...

Quebec wunderkind filmmaker Xavier Dolan, who ten years ago at the age of 20 arrived at Cannes and knocked their socks off with I Killed My Mother, returns to the Croisette with Matthias and Maxime about two young childhood male friends, who after a kiss as adults, begin to question their true feelings.

As a filmmaker Dolan’s canon is famed for its homosexual themes and mothers of varying personalities. In Matthias and Maxime, the latter character is about to leave home for a trip to Australia and has to contend with a sick, abusive mother as he tries to leave her in the care of a guardian. How bad is mom? Despite her son’s good intentions, she throws a can at his head.

Said Dolan today at the Cannes press conference for the film, “Many say they recognize mothers and homosexuality in my films. In regards to mothers, we all have one,...

From one point of view, Xavier Dolan’s career looks like a precocious, single-minded blitz. As a director (he’s also a writer and actor), he’s made eight films between 2009 and 2019, with his first coming at the age of 20 and his latest, “Matthias & Maxime,” premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in the main competition on Wednesday. It is the sixth of Dolan’s films to play in Cannes, with “Mommy” winning the Jury Prize and “It’s Only the End of the World” winning the Grand Prize.

So why does “Matthias & Maxime” feel like a comeback of sorts for the former wunderkind who turned 30 two months ago? Why does it feel as if Dolan’s blitzkrieg of a career had reached a crisis point where it badly needed a film as sharp and warm as this one?

Mostly, that’s because of Dolan’s last two films.

Chris Zylka (The Leftovers) and Taveeta Syzmanowicz (October Faction) are set for recurring roles opposite Willa Fitzgerald, Herizen Guardiola and Marlo Kelly on USA drama series Dare Me, from Ucp and Peter Berg and Michael Lombardo’s Film 44.

Based on the novel by Megan Abbott, who serves as writer and executive producer along with Gina Fattore, Dare Me is described as an unflinching exploration of teen angst, jealousy, loyalty and the dynamics of power in a small Midwestern town.

Peering behind the all-American facade, Dare Me dives into the cutthroat world of competitive high school cheerleading. It follows the fraught relationship between two best friends (Guardiola and Kelly) after a new coach (Fitzgerald) arrives to bring their team to prominence. While the girls’ friendship is put to the test, their young lives are changed forever when a shocking crime rocks their quiet suburban world. Part coming-of-age story, part small-town drama,...

The city of Vienna will honor composer Gabriel Yared with the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award as part of their Hollywood in Vienna gala Oct. 19, organizers of the annual event announced Sunday.

The night before receiving the award, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning Yared is slated to perform selections from his music on piano along with the Orf Vienna Radio Symphonic Orchestra at the Vienna Concert Hall.

Other recipients of the Steiner Award since the founding of Hollywood in Vienna in 2007 include Hans Zimmer, Randy Newman, Lalo Schifrin, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard and, before they passed away, the late James Horner and John Barry.

Yared’s most awarded score was for “The English Patient” — it won him an Oscar, Golden Globe, Grammy and BAFTA. His association with the late director Anthony Minghella also included the music for “Cold Mountain” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” He recently wrote...

Amit Shah (The Courier), Sibongile Mlambo (Siren), Diana Bermudez (The Death and Life of John F. Donovan) and newcomer Sarah Catherine Hook are set as series regulars opposite Mike Vogel in ABC drama pilot Triangle, from Jon Harmon Feldman and Jennifer Gwartz’s Random Hill and ABC Studios.

Written by Feldman and Sonny Postiglione, Triangle poses the question, what if the Bermuda Triangle was not a watery grave in the middle of the ocean but a land lost in time that has trapped travelers over the course of human history? When a family is shipwrecked in this strange land, they must band together with a group of like-minded inhabitants — from throughout history — to survive and somehow find a way home.

Shah will play Dr. Owen Patel, another resident of the Triangle who has been here since 1988. Mlambo will portray Lieutenant Priscilla. Bermudez is Tama. Hook portrays Natalie.

Feldman, Gwartz and Postiglione executive produce.

If you’ve been following the career of actor-filmmaker Xavier Dolan, you’re probably aware that his newest film, “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan,” has had nothing short of a terrible production. While fans will still have to wait a bit more to see the fruits of his labor, judging the film based solely on its production, which was riddled with drama, it would appear that Dolan had an uphill battle every step of the way to get his film finished.

Continue reading Xavier Dolan Talks His Own “Ignorance, Inexperience, Incompetence” During Troubled Production Of ‘John F. Donovan’ at The Playlist.

Jon Snow may know nothing, but to us, he's everything. Thirty-two-year-old English actor Kit Harington has portrayed the incredibly sexy Lord Commander of the Watch on Game of Thrones for almost a decade now, and it's difficult to imagine him doing anything other than guarding the Wall and battling White Walkers. But as the premiere of GoT's season eight approaches, we must acknowledge that Jon Snow's watch will soon end. So what exactly is next for Harington?

As heartbroken as we are about losing the Lord Commander, Harington himself is ready to ditch his furs and sword to take on new roles. "I'd like to step away and enjoy the obscurity, cut my hair, make myself less recognizable as the character, and go and do some other things with a completely new look and tone," Harington told Entertainment Weekly. He added, "I can't go into my next role looking the same.

NEWSCharles Burnett's Killer of SheepTwo exciting stories involving two forerunners of the L.A. Rebellion: Charles Burnett is set to direct the film Steal Away, about the escape of former slave-turned-politician Robert Smalls; while Julie Dash will be helming Lionsgate's Angela Davis biopic. GammaRay and Celestial pictures will be hosting a Shaw Brothers movie marathon on Twitch that will continue from February 4 to February 8. The globally-streaming marathon includes 44 full-length features from the Shaw Brothers’ catalog, so make sure to clear your calendars! Recommended VIEWINGThe release of Harmony Korine's long awaited follow-up to his lightening-in-a-bottle movie Spring Breakers is finally near. Here's a new trailer for the Miami-set, Matthew McConaughey-starring odyssey.A lovely miniature play with form: the U.S. trailer for Hong Sang-soo's Hotel by the River. Meanwhile, we are currently running a retrospective of Hong's films in the UK entitled Solving Puzzles: The Cinema of Hong Sang-soo.

A new trailer has emerged for Xavier Dolan’s English language debut ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan featuring an all-star cast fronted by Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Natalie Portman.

Directed by French filmmaker Dolan the cast also includes Jacob Trembley, Thandie Newton, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Ben Schnetzer, Michael Gambon and Sarah Gadon.

Jessica Chastain also initially starred in the film as a villain but was cut after Dolan had to make cuts to the film which was originally 4 hours long.

Also in trailers – New trailer for Ralph Fiennes’ The White Crow swirls in

The film is released in France in March.

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan Synopsis

Set in the early 2000s and centres on the tribulations of an American TV star in his late twenties (Kit Harington) and his correspondence with Rupert Turner (Jacob Tremblay), an eleven-year-old actor-to-be living with his mother in England.

The first international trailer for The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan, Xavier Dolan's (It's Only The End Of The World) English-language debut, has arrived and it's certainly something. Starring Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Jacob Tremblay (Room), and Natalie Portman (Vox Lux), the drama centers around the unlikely correspondence between John F. Donovan (Harington), a famous up-and-coming actor, and Rupert Turner (Tremblay), a young fan in whom Donovan confides. A decade…...

"This is about us! As a society - what we want, what we seek." Mars Distribution in France has debuted a full-length international trailer for the film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, the first English-language feature made by Quebecois filmmaker Xavier Dolan. This premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and received mixed reviews - some negative, some positive (I really loved it). This very personal film from Dolan follows a young closeted gay actor who recounts his early years before becoming famous, connecting with a young boy who he corresponds with for years through hand-written letters. It's a multi-narrative film, and very emotional, as expected with Dolan. Kit Harington stars as the titular John F. Donovan, and the film's great ensemble cast includes Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Thandie Newton, Kathy Bates, Ben Schnetzer, Sarah Gadon, Emily Hampshire, and Jared Keeso. I'm a big...

The first international trailer for The Death and Life of John F. Donovan has landed online, offering a look at writer/director Xavier Dolan’s long-delayed English-language debut. The dramatic epic was shot in two halves back in 2016 and 2017, but Dolan famously tinkered with the structure pretty heavily in post-production, going so far as to completely remove the film’s principal antagonist character played by Jessica Chastain. The finished story chronicles the correspondence between a teen-tv-heartthrob-turned-movie-star named John F. Donovan (Kit Harington) and a young fan named Rupert (Jacob Tremblay), …...

While the five-year stretch that comprised his first five films resulted in Xavier Dolan’s rise in international prominence, the last years haven’t been as kind, with It’s Only the End of the World and The Death and Life of John F. Donovan receiving less-than-stellar reviews and distribution woes. The most recent film still doesn’t have U.S. distribution–despite the impressive cast of Kit Harington, Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, and Thandie Newton–but it’ll arrive in France this March and the first international trailer has landed.

Josh Lewis said in his Tiff review, “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, his most ambitious undertaking yet (dealing with three major characters in two different timelines), however carries with it a bizarre desperation to be taken seriously, deploying a lot of the same stylistic tics with a hesitance and muddled fragmentation meanwhile...

The time elapsed between the respective premieres of “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan” and 2016’s poorly received “It’s Only the End of the World” amounts to the longest period we’ve ever had to wait for a new Xavier Dolan film, and it looks like the director is going all in with his English-language debut.

Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019

The film’s lengthy production may have wrapped back in the spring of 2017, but Dolan has been cautious about letting this one get past post-production before it’s good and ready.

Continue reading ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’ Trailer: Xavier Dolan Tackles Celebrity, Childhood & Innocence Lost at The Playlist.

John Cho (Searching), Allison Tolman (Fargo) and Jacob Tremblay (Room) have been tapped to star in “The Wunderkind” episode of The Twilight Zone reboot on CBS All Access. Erica Tremblay will also appear in the episode. They join previously announced host and narrator Jordan Peele and cast members Sanaa Lathan, Adam Scott and Kumail Nanjiani.

The CBS All Access series will be a modern reimagining of the original, which premiered in 1959 and continued through 1964. Details about specific roles are being kept under wraps.

Cho was recently seen in thriller Searching, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Cho’s other recent film credits include The Oath and Star Trek: Beyond, among others. On TV, he was recently seen in Fox’s The Exorcist.

Tolman is best known for her performance in the first season of FX’s Fargo, for which she won the...

John Cho, Allison Tolman and Jacob Tremblay are about to enter Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone.”

The three actors have been cast on the upcoming CBS All Access reboot, starring in the episode “The Wunderkind,” CBS announced Monday. Jacob Tremblay’s younger sister, Erica Tremblay, will also appear.

Cho, Tolman and the Tremblays are the latest cast members to sign up for the series, joining Sanaa Lathan, Adam Scott and Kumail Nanjiani. Peele is executive producing and narrating, stepping into the role that Rod Serling made famous. You can get a taste of what Peele’s narration will sound like here.

Also Read: 'Twilight Zone': Kumail Nanjiani Latest to Join Jordan Peele's Reboot for CBS All Access

The new series, which is eyeing a 2019 debut, will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films. Peele and Kinberg serve...

Paris Hilton's ex is back to calling his own shots now that he's riding fast in the single lane ... first order of business -- breathing life into his acting career. Sources close to Chris Zylka tell TMZ ... the 'Leftovers' actor allowed his acting career to take a back seat to Paris while he was dating her. We're told Chris didn't film anything during the time they were dating ... especially after he popped the question...

‘Room’ and ‘Wonder’ star, Jacob Tremblay has signed up for ‘The Shining’ sequel ‘Doctor Sleep’ for an unknown role.

Trembley joins the cast with Ewan McGregor leading as the adult Danny Torrance; the son of Jack Torrance as played by Jack Nicholson in the Kubrick film. Rebecca Ferguson also stars as the leader of the cult while Carl Lumbly, Bruce Greenwood, Alex Essoe and Zahn McClarnon have supporting roles.

The current synopsis making the rounds reads:

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Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) carries the trauma of the Overlook Hotel into adulthood and has become a reflection of his murderous father, with lingering rage and a drinking problem that dulls his pain as well as his ‘shining’ powers.

Those powers return when he embraces sobriety and uses his gift to help the dying at a hospice. He establishes a psychic...

Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats (2010) is showing November 10 – December 9, 2018 on Mubi in the United States.Xavier Dolan is infatuated with image. The Louis Vuitton model makes films of meticulous composition, color, and sartorial specificity. The filmmaker’s life, as he completes a decade of making films, is well known: a wunderkind-cum-enfant terrible, Dolan made his first film at nineteen. The film, I Killed My Mother (2009), played at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, where he’s become a house cat amongst toms, racking up prestigious awards and adulation while arrayed in the finest of fashion—the man has style. Somewhere along his ascent the critical discourse began to curdle. Flaws and weaknesses (excessive fealty to Wong Kar-wai and overly-simplistic character dynamics) in his first few films were absolved under the auspices of youthful promise. Critics and viewers were excited to discover a new cine-stylist, but around the time of Mommy (2014) the pools of disfavor began to form.

Xavier Dolan’s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan premiered at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival in Canada. Starring Emily Hampshire, Natalie Portman, Jacob Tremblay, Bella Thorne, Sarah Gadon, Thandie Newton, Kit Harington, Susan Sarandon, Michael Gambon and Kathy Bates.

Teh cast talked enthusiastically about Dolan’s direction, and Game of Thrones star Kit Harington opened up about how important the subject matter of the film is, and how playing a character such as his was a real challenge.

Dave Sztypuljak was on the red carpet, here’s how he got on.

The Death and Life of John F Donovan Premiere Interviews

Plot:

A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces the written correspondence he shared with him, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.

The post Susan Sarandon, Kit Harington, Sarah Gadon on The Death and Life...

For all his stylistic faults, French-Canadian film festival darling Xavier Dolan has never lacked confidence. From his personal and intimately-scaled debut I Killed My Mother to his most recent misfire of oppressively shouted cinema It’s Only the End of the World, Dolan has never struggled to express himself. The value of some of those expressions aside, his melodramas are typically narratively and stylistically self-assured; featuring people feeling things and then yelling about them at each other in close-up followed by slow-motion montages set to pop music that are either melancholic or cathartic depending on what part of the story we’re in. And they do seem to work for people, especially those of a certain age (myself included) that can relate to blasting 90s alt-rock in your room because you’re mad at your mom.

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, his most ambitious undertaking yet (dealing...

Hidden among more than 250 movies screening at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, there’s one — well-written, relatable, and wonderfully of-the-moment — in which a mom, fed up at last with her child’s unremitting narcissism, snaps, “Not everything’s about you,” adding that it’s Ok to be selfish in your 20s, but it stops being cute when you turn 30. Xavier Dolan’s “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan” is not that movie, although its director, who is 29, might benefit from seeing that other, better Toronto film, “The Weekend,” which contains the aforementioned scene, and whose central lesson he would do well to absorb: Maturity comes in realizing that you are not the center of the universe.

A work of stunning technique eclipsed by its increasingly jaw-dropping solipsism, “Death and Life” — or “How Deep Into Xavier Dolan’s Navel Dare We Gaze?” — may as well be preaching the...

by Chris Feil

The party of Xavier Dolan is petering out. Or at least for his crowd of defenders, the noble few who have been willing to see past histrionics for the queer pop opera of his cinema. But for all of the detractive claims of the young director consistently falling down his own rabbit holes, it stands to ask what people want from the cinema if not directors drunk on their own Kool-Aid.

And yet his newest effort, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, is the toughest to defend. Despite some moments when the film really hits its stride, Dolan is mostly merely strident, crafting a trolling work that dares you to not call it as petulant as it is. His films have been called nakedly autobiographical or trite, and this film turns those whiffing dismissals into text. Is one person’s trash the next person’s honesty,...

Kit Harington is already starting to wave the warning flags about the “Game of Thrones” series finale. During the press rounds at the Toronto International Film Festival in support of his role in Xavier Dolan’s “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan,” Harington was asked about the final run of “Thrones ” episodes, to which he guaranteed not every fan will be satisfied with the story’s conclusion.

“I think a TV series that’s spanned eight, nine years is an incredibly difficult thing to end,” Harington said. “I think not everyone’s going to be happy, you know, and you can’t please everyone. My favorite TV shows are ‘Sopranos,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ and ‘The Wire,’ and they all ended in a way that…It’s never going to satisfy you.”

“The Sopranos” famously ended by cutting to black mid-scene. Tony Soprano sat with his family in a diner...

Exclusive: Academy Award winner Melissa Leo and Bella Thorne have been tapped to topline Leave Not One Alive, an indie revenge thriller written and directed by Jordan Galland. The pic, which is currently filming in New York, hails from Ace Pictures Entertainment and DeerJen. Jake Weary (It Follows), Michael Potts (The Wire), Benedict Samuel (Gotham), Kevin Corrigan (The Departed), and Adrian Martinez (I Feel Pretty) co-star.

The plot follows a theater actress, Lillian Cooper (Leo) whose son (Weary) dies mysteriously. When the investigating officer (Potts) rules the cause of death an accidental overdose, Lillian conducts her own investigation which leads her to an unlikely alliance with her son’s former drug dealer (Thorne). On her quest for answers, Lillian hallucinates some of the iconic characters she’s played on stage which serve as her inner voice, urging her to avenge her son’s death.

Producers are Jen Gatien, Peter Wong,...

You can say a lot of things about The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, but you can’t say filmmaker Xavier Dolan didn’t leave it all on the field. The sprawling drama marks the lauded Canadian filmmaker’s first English-language film, and in it he ambitiously attempts to tackle themes of fame, privacy, sexuality, growing up, and of course mothers and sons. It doesn’t really work, and some bits of the film are a total mess, but the shaggy film isn't entirely without merit. Dolan’s wild ambition, however flawed, is certainly something to …...