The Toronto International Film Festival and Venice Film Festival have started rolling out their lineups, and there are plenty of big movies still to come. One picture that’s sure to rock the landscape should it be announced — and it’s starting to feel like it will be soon — is Xavier Dolan‘s “The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan.” Some new posters have landed, and it certainly suggests this one might pop up on the radar sooner rather than later.
Jessica Chastain, Kit Harington, Taylor Kitsch, Kathy Bates, Jacob Tremblay, Susan Sarandon, Natalie Portman, Nicholas Hoult, and Thandie Newton star in the movie, which centers on the tribulations of John Donovan, an American TV star in his late 20s, 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.
“Natalie [Portman] is playing Jacob [Tremblay]’s mother. He plays a young fan who’s desperately, if not obsessively, fond of an American TV star called John F. Donovan [Kit Harington]. He follows his every TV appearance, has every poster of him plastered on the walls of his room, and unbeknownst to everyone, including his mom, has a secret correspondence with him,” Dolan explained to Vanity Fair. “We follow their respective lives as their pen-pal relationship is about to be exposed, jeopardizing their friendship and turning their worlds upside down.”
Certainly sounds like it’s going to be quite something from the director. No release dates yet, check out the posters below.