There's a pretty good chance we'll be talking about Canadian director Xavier Dolan as an Oscar winner for his current film, Mommy, which has been earning incredible reviews (including mine) on its way to an Indie Spirit Award nomination. Dolan has been out there doing press for the film to drum up some awards buzz, and of course he was asked about his next film, a celebrity satire titled The Death and Life of John F. Donovan. While he has something provocative to say about star Jessica Chastain's role, Dolan has also given her a co-star in Game of Thrones' Kit Harington.
Deadline reported the news of Harington's addition to the cast, playing the titular American actor "whose correspondence with an 11-year-old actor living with his mother in England is exposed, prompting ill-founded assumptions that begin to destroy his life and career." Chastain plays the editor of a gossip magazine that targets Donovan when the accusations come to light. According to Dolan, it's going to be one showy role Chastain, one that will see her get pretty nasty. He tells Thompson on Hollywood...
Dolan: "We're going to have so much fun doing this. She's a mega tricky villain. Like full-on bitch. I'm a fan of what she does and I can see all that she can do, but she has not played this part. It's a very specific part. It's sheer evil."
Sounds amazing, and another serious turn for Chastain who got pretty vicious in A Most Violent Year. As for the rest of the film, Dolan is looking to go much broader than the personal stories he's accustomed to...
Dolan: “What I’m interested in is how your career choices can affect your private life, romantically, or with your mom, your relatives, your friends, your hometown, and how media manipulates information – not newspapers or blogs, but the magazines that people impulse-buy that tell you what’s hot, and who’s not. I’m thinking of how this culture has transformed the movies that we make and stories we tell and how artists are free – or not – to be themselves.”
Mommy is in theaters now and you should be seeking it out. The Death and Life of John F. Donovan should go into production soon, hopefully to be released next year.
