Out Director Xavier Dolan Readies New Film, Says Recent LGBTQ Movies Inspired Him

Out filmmaker Xavier Dolan has been working on his first English-language film "The Death and Life of John F. Donovan," which boasts a star-studded cast, for sometime now but he's already revealed his next project.

Though "John F. Donovan" hasn't even premiered yet (it'll likely debut this year), Dolan is now focused on the future and his next movie will be called "Matt & Max," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

"John F. Donovan" stars heavy-hitters Kit Harrington ("Game of Thrones") as the titular character, along with Jessica Chastain, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Bella Thorn and more, but "Matt and Max" appears to be a return to Dolan's roots.

"Matt & Max" will find the French Canadian director shooting the French-language drama in his native Quebec. It also finds Dolan reuniting with his muse, Anne Dorval, who played maternal characters in his two films "Mommy" and "I Killed My Mother." She'll play Max's mother in his new film and Dolan will play Max himself.

"My desire to talk about homosexuality and how we live with it, how we see it, how we label it, how we organize it as a society" was part of the idea behind "John F. Donovan," he told THR. He added the film ended up being "more of an homage to the family dramas of the '90s rather than a profound reflection on what it is to be gay."

Dolan, 28, added he felt the need to take on homosexuality head on in "Matt & Max." The director also explained the slate of recent LGBTQ films, including "Call Me By Your Name" and "Boy Erased" have inspired him. That latter film, written and directed by Joel Edgerton and stars Lucas Hedges ("Manchester By the Sea," "Lady Bird") Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe as well as Dolan, deals with conversion therapy and will debut this fall.

"This year I've been exposed to films that I felt were so brave and so authentic in their writing and how they talked about queer love," Dolan told THR. He also suggests that some of his previous films, like "Mommy", could be perceived as "coy" about the sexuality of the characters.

"I have felt the need to explore characters that weren't necessarily gay," he said, adding that "when I read "Boy Erased," it touched my heart. I was getting tattooed at the time, and it just took all the pain away. It made me want to go back to writing a script about characters who are gay."

Dolan said he wrote "Matt & Max" while he was shooting "Boy Erased" in Atlanta last September.

"I've been writing about kids and adolescents," he said. "[Lately] I have been confronted with such mature material, like "Boy Erased," "Call Me by Your Name," and "God's Own Country," and that gave me the desire to talk about homosexuality from an adult - and not a post-adolescent - point of view, and to talk about my generation and my friends and friendships.

"It made me want to write about two best friends falling in love who had never realized they could have a preference for men," the director continued. "I want to talk about true friendship and true love."

THR notes Dolan plans on shooting "Matt & Max" in the fall. He said the film will "be a combination of [his 2013 film] 'Tom at the Farm," aesthetically, and 'Mommy,' in terms of energy and spirit."