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25 What does Xavier Dolan's first TV series have in store for us?

What does Xavier Dolan's first TV series have in store for us?

Series

Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan ("Laurence Anyways", "Mommy") is about to start shooting his first series entitled "The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up". Adapted from a Quebecois stage play, the five-episode psychological thriller will be available on Canal+ in 2022.

Xavier Dolan dans "Mathias et Maxime" (2019) © Diaphana distribution Xavier Dolan dans "Mathias et Maxime" (2019) © Diaphana distribution
Xavier Dolan dans "Mathias et Maxime" (2019) © Diaphana distribution

Now aged 31, Xavier Dolan is no longer cinema’s young prodigy endlessly evoked over the last decade. Having first hit the big screen at the age of 20 with I Killed my Mother (2009), the Canadian writer-director continued his career with Heartbeats (2010), before achieving unanimous critical acclaim with Laurence Anyways (2012), then Mommy (2014), which won the jury prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. After shooting more recently with Natalie Portman and Kit Harington in The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2018) and portraying an ambiguous friendship in Mathias and Maxime (2019), the filmmaker - who confided to Numéro in March 2019 about his desire to become "from film to film, a better director and a better human being" - is back in his rookie suit to tackle a whole new discipline: TV series.

 

 

Adapted from a Quebec play about the reconciliation of a friendly trio after thirty years of separation, The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up, deals with themes dear to Xavier Dolan including family, lies and hurt feelings. "I saw Michel Marc Bouchard's play in June 2019 and immediately saw my next project. Beyond the obviousness that I had to write and film this story about life and death, about grief, self-acceptance and family, there was the months of waiting between the idea and making it, caused by the pandemic, which has, more than ever, inspired and excited me and made me impatient to act, to increasingly push my limits, to explore the thriller genre, to renew my way of telling stories, with what is a dream cast" said the filmmaker, who will ask the same actors from the stage play to adopt their roles in the series by his side – because as we know, Xavier Dolan also likes to slip in front of the camera when he directs.

  

 

The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up by Xavier Dolan, will be available on Canal+ in 2022.