The first international trailer for THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN, Xavier Dolan's (IT'S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD) English-language debut, has arrived and it's certainly something. Starring Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Jacob Tremblay (ROOM), and Natalie Portman (VOX LUX), the drama centers around the unlikely correspondence between John F. Donovan (Harington), a famous up-and-coming actor, and Rupert Turner (Tremblay), a young fan in whom Donovan confides. A decade after Donovan's death, the now adult Rupert discusses his relationship with the actor, and the letters, with a journalist.
Although THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN was invited to debut at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Dolan wasn't happy with state of the project and proceeded to re-edit and re-structure the film, even going so far as to completely remove a main character played by Jessica Chastain, and it finally debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Unfortunately, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN received mostly negative reviews, with many calling the film something of a mess with a story which got lost in the editing room.
The official synopsis for THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN:
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan takes place in the early 2000s and centers on the tribulations of an American TV star in his late twenties (Harington) and his correspondence with Rupert Turner, a young actor-to-be living with his mother in England. Their lives take dramatic turns when the existence of their pen pal relationship is publicly exposed, eliciting the most ill-founded assumptions, and sending Donovan in a vertical downfall. A decade later, the young actor recollects his relationship with his past idol over the course of an interview.
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN will hit theaters in France on March 13, 2019.
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