Xavier Dolan Sets First TV Drama ‘The Night Logan Woke Up’
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Veteran Canadian film director Xavier Dolan has joined the golden age of TV.
After his eighth feature film, Matthias & Maxime, Dolan is partnering with Canal+, Quebecor Content and Studiocanal for his first drama, the five-episode The Night Logan Wakes Up series. The long-rumored foray by Dolan into TV is an adaptation of the popular stage play, La nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s’est réveillé, from playwright Michel Marc Bouchard.
The limited series, to start production in March 2021, will air as a Quebecor Content and Canal+ original in 2022. Dolan, a favorite of Cannes, will both write and direct The Night Logan Woke Up as a French language psychological thriller, which he will also produce along with Nanoby’s Nancy Grant and Jasmyrh Lemoine.
The series will star original cast members from the 2019 play, including Julie Le Breton, Magalie Lepine-Blondeau, Eric Bruneau and Patrick Hivon, along with Dolan and Julianne Côte. The limited series, set in the early 1990s, will follow Mimi and her brother Jules as teens and best friends with Logan.
The boys’ inseparable friendship is torn apart when Logan rapes Mimi, shattering their families.
Three decades later, Mimi travels home on her mother’s death, only to see secrets and spite buried deep in the past resurface amid a series of dramatic twists and turns.
Studiocanal has secured international distribution rights to the Canada-France co-production. Javi Hernandez and Harry Grivakis of VVS Films brokered the deals on behalf of the filmmakers and will serve as executive producers.
The move into TV follows Dolan’s busy movie directorial career with titles like Mommy, It’s Only the End of the World, Tom at the Farm — another adaptation of a Bouchard play — and the English-language title The Death & Life of John F. Donovan.