Xavier Dolan, who originally claimed that he was retiring from filmmaking because “art is meaningless” and “the world is burning,” is now dusting off a project he wrote before the pandemic, and putting the finishing touches on what will be his ninth feature film.
Dolan recently posted an image of the script on his Instagram with “Autumn 2026” written on it. This thing is actually happening. No casting details for now, yet on the first page of the seen script, three names can be somewhat deciphered: Pierre Niney (“The Count of Monte Cristo”), Anne Dorval (“Mommy”) and Paul Kircher (“Animal Kingdom”).
Dolan described the untitled project as a “horror movie” with “comic elements,” but really an “amalgam of different genres.”
He added, “It will be the second chapter, the second half of a career where I slowed down to the point of nearly stopping. I know I could never sustain the same rhythm that I had before. I was younger and I was different.”
The film is set in 1880s “Parisian literary world” and will be shot in that city. I would imagine a Cannes 2027 premiere is being eyed for this film, where Dolan had become a mainstay.
One can call Dolan’s rise in the 2010s as a “sensation,” having directed seven films in his twenties, for which he received multiple awards, including winning the Jury Prize at Cannes for 2014’s “Mommy” — still his best film.
Dolan has become this polarizing figure among cinephiles. After surprising the film world, in his mid-20s, with well-received fare such as “Laurence Anyways,” “Mommy,” and "Tom at the Farm,” his last three (“Matthias & Maxime,” “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan,” and “It’s Only the End of the World”) were not as acclaimed.
Yes, ‘Doomsday’ was shot without a finalized script. It was being written as production rolled on. The screenplay was still under development on set, with daily rewrites and updates in progress.