Room Breakout Jacob Tremblay Will Bear Witness To The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan

Jacob Tremblay is the latest addition to The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan.

That’s according to The Hollywood Reporter, noting that the young up-and-comer will incidentally play a young up-and-coming actor in Xavier Dolan’s star-studded drama. Largely set in the early 2000s, Dolan’s English-language debut follows a popular TV star (Kit Harington) who finds his reputation in tatters amid allegations of his purported correspondence with an 11-year-old actor (Tremblay). The two had maintained a transatlantic pen pal relationship for months, but when those email exchanges are publicly exposed, Harington’s actor is called into question as a relentless media storm begins to swirl.

Also starring Miss Sloane‘s Jessica Chastain, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Michael Gambon, Thandie Newton and Scream Queens‘ star Bella Thorne, The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan will hop between two time periods. The second takes place about a decade later, at which point the older version of Tremblay reflects on the fallout with his former idol during the course of an extended interview. Think of how The Social Network handled the court case between Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin – albeit with a more dramatic time jump – and you’ll get a sense of the film’s narrative set-up.

The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan is currently lensing in Montreal ahead of an expected release in 2018. Now that Tremblay has capped off the casting process, production will soon uproot for Prague, New York and the United Kingdom. Looking further afield, the young actor has also lined up roles in both Wonder and Shane Black’s Predator reboot.