Untitled Horror Movie | Xavier Dolan

[Cremildo]

Someone is emerging from early (filmmaker) retirement, and we might have Cannes topper Thierry Frémaux to thank for it. After a cool volunteer job as the head of the Un Certain Regard jury this summer, Xavier Dolan‘s creative spark was reignited. He has dusted off a project he wrote before the pandemic and is now putting the finishing touches on what will be his ninth feature film—a venture into the horror genre. It’s worth noting that Dolan had a small role in Pascal Laugier’s gore-filled Martyrs before debuting as a director with I Killed My Mother in 2009. This new energy also came ab out from a trio of projects that Dolan has climbed on as an actor.

Set in 1880s France, Dolan revealed on the Sans Filtre Podcast (at the 47:42 mark) that his upcoming project explores themes of fear, failure, and rejection. +

[Gacivory]

Glad to hear he’s back! I’ll check out what he does!

[Cremildo]

Dolan is downplaying the horror element of the project a bit:

“It’s going to be a genre film, that’s for sure. Is it going to be a horror movie? I might have spoken too soon. There’s a lot of comic elements in the writing. There will certainly be horror moments, but it’s rather an amalgam of lots of genres,” he said.

Dolan said he hoped to shoot the film next year, saying it would mark the beginning of a new phase in his career.

“It will be the second chapter, the second half of a career where I slowed down to the point of nearly stopping,” he said. “I know I could never sustain the same rhythm that I had before. I was younger and I was different.”