While acclaimed filmmaker Xavier Dolan isn’t heading to next week’s Cannes Film Festival with his new film, the first slew of images for his latest effort, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, have arrived. Anticipation is already at fever pitch, though it may be a little while yet until we get to see the film.
Dolan’s previous films include I Killed My Mother, Mommy and, most recently last year, It’s Only The End of the World, which starred Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel, Lea Seydoux, Nathalie Baye and Gaspard Ulliel. His new film features as impressive a cast.
SEE ALSO: Read our review of It’s Only The End of the World
A slew of A-list talent headline the film, including Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane, The Zookeeper’s Wife), Natalie Portman (Jackie, Song to Song), Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Taylor Kitsch (True Detective), Kathy Bates (American Horror Story), Jacob Tremblay (Room, The Book of Henry), Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Apocalypse) Thandie Newton (Westworld) and Susan Sarandon (The Meddler).
The film is rumoured to take place in the early 2000’s and “centers on the tribulations of an American TV star in his late 20s (Harington) and his correspondence with Rupert Turner, a young actor-to-be living with his mother in England. Their lives take dramatic turns when the existence of their pen-pal relationship is publicly exposed, eliciting the most ill-founded assumptions and sending Donovan in a vertical downfall. A decade later, the young actor recollects his relationship with his past idol over the course of an interview.”
While a release date hasn’t yet been set, it could debut towards the end of the year ready for awards season and across the festival circuit. With the Toronto International Film Festival, London Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival later this year, we may well get our first glimpse of The Death and Life of John F. Donovan very soon.
