Portman, Hoult and Thandie Newton will appear in director Xavier Dolan's English-language debut film alongside Kit Harington, Jessica Chastain, Susan Sarandon and more.
- Feb 10, 2016
AceShowbiz - More A-listers have joined the already-star-studded cast of "The Death and Life of John F. Donovan". Natalie Portman, Nicholas Hoult and Thandie Newton are now also expected appear in what will be Xavier Dolan's next feature and first English-language film, according to Deadline.
"From 'Crash' to 'Closer', Besson's 'Professional', 'About a Boy', 'Skins' and more recently '[Mad Max: Fury Road]', Natalie, Thandie and Nicholas have always inspired me, and helped define what I like and find exciting in acting," the 26-year-old director said of enlisting the tree stars in a statement Tuesday, February 9. "So there is an almost karmic peculiarity to knowing I'll be working with them next."
"They're completing a list of talents whom I believe are very rare, and even rarer together. I'm excited to tell this story with them. Never has a film been so important to me, especially because its subject, diversity and identity in film, has never felt so real, and dire," he continued.
"The Death and Life of John F. Donovan" is set in the early 2000s and will follow TV actor John F. Donovan who's sent in a vertical downfall after his pen pal relationship with Rupert Turner, a young actor-to-be living with his mother in England, is publicly exposed. The hardships of fame and hurdles of the movie business will be explored as the young actor revisits the relationship in an interview a decade later.
Kit Harington has been tapped to play the title character while Jessica Chastain will portray a gossip columnist that reveals Donovan and Turner's correspondence. Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Michael Gambon and Taylor Kitsch are other big names attached to the project. Adele, who worked with Dolan on her records-breaking "Hello" music video, has reportedly agreed to make a cameo.
The film is scheduled to start shooting in the spring. Dolan's most recent project would be "It's Only the End of the World" which stars Marion Cotillard, Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel.
