Xavier Dolan Reveals Writing Period Horror Film in Return to Filmmaking

Canadian director Xavier Dolan has revealed that he is currently writing a period horror film set in 1880s France, which he hopes to shoot by late 2025.

If this project comes to fruition, it will mark Dolan’s first feature since “Matthias & Maxime”, which debuted in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.

“It’s something I wrote before the pandemic, and I’m now revisiting it. It’s a genre film, a horror film, set in the 1880s in France,” Dolan stated during an episode of the Canadian cinema podcast Sans Filtre.

In the same episode, Dolan shared how the negative reviews for his sixth feature, “It’s Only the End of the World”, which premiered in Competition at Cannes in 2016, have had a lasting personal impact on him.

Dolan’s experience with criticism has continued to influence his work. Speaking about the new horror project, he explained, “It feels disconnected from my life and what I know, but upon rereading it, I realized that it tackles themes like the fear of failure, the fear of being rejected, of being misunderstood, and the difficulty of creating.”

“Unconsciously, I’ve returned to the same themes in a period that is unfamiliar to me but appeals to me, and in a style that I find intriguing, yet with an entirely different proposition. I feel that I can surpass myself, learn, and grow with themes that are dear to me, but in the horror genre,” he added.

Since “Matthias & Maxime,” Dolan has been engaged in various other projects. He worked on the short film “Happy Diamonds”, directed the music video for Adele’s “Easy On Me”, and created the 2022 TV mini-series “The Night Logan Woke Up,” which he also penned during the pandemic.

More recently, Dolan has returned to acting with roles in his Balzac adaptation “Lost Illusions” and Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast,” where he lent his voice to an artificial intelligence system.

The director is currently in the process of re-writing the screenplay for the new horror film. “It’s going to cost a lot. You’ve got the costumes, the lighting,” he said, noting that he plans to shoot on location around Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, as well as in the studio.

In the meantime, Dolan is gearing up for the publication of a book titled “A Friendship Through Film” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his film “Mommy.” This joint project between his company, Sons of Manual, and the French film company mk2 will feature unseen images taken by photographer and long-time friend Shayne Laverdière. It captures moments from the “Mommy” shoot and its successful launch at Cannes in 2014, where it won the Jury Prize.

Source: Vanity Fair, Variety