Xavier Dolan’s first drama series, produced in collaboration with Quebecor Content, will air in Québec and internationally
Montreal, November 24, 2020 – Quebecor Content today announced a deal to make Xavier Dolan’s first drama series, La Nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s’est réveillé. Dolan will be director and screenwriter. The psychological thriller, based on Michel Marc Bouchard’s play of the same name, will be produced by Nancy Grant and Jasmyrh Lemoine of Nanoby.
The major original series will stream on Club illico and will also showcase Québec talent internationally, with a number of international deals already confirmed. La Nuit is being produced in association with CANAL+ which will broadcast the series in France.
The television adaptation of the hit play staged at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in the summer of 2019 features a distinguished cast. Julie Le Breton, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Éric Bruneau and Patrick Hivon, all members of the original cast, will bring their characters to the television screen. They will be joined by Xavier Dolan and Julianne Côté. The big-name actors will play an assortment of profoundly human characters in a poignant work that mixes horror, humour, mystery and drama as it grapples with the reality and the drama of family, death, grief and addiction.
“We are proud to be associated with Xavier Dolan, Nancy Grant and Jasmyrh Lemoine,” says Denis Dubois, Vice-President, Original Content of Quebecor Content. “They are internationally recognized figures who share our desire to demonstrate Québec’s know-how and bring Québec talent to international audiences. La Nuit will give a brilliant cast and crew a chance to shine, both in Québec and in foreign markets.”
La Nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s’est réveillé will be distributed internationally by Studiocanal. The agreements were negotiated by Javi Hernandez and Harry Grivakis of VVS Films, who are also executive producers.
Family drama
The year is 1991. Julien, Mireille and Laurier are inseparable friends. But on an otherwise unremarkable October night, Laurier rapes Mireille. He’s not yet 17; she’s just 14. The once-close families are ripped apart and at daggers drawn. Nothing will ever be the same again.
Thirty years later, now an eminent thanatologist, Mireille comes home to embalm her own mother and reunites with the brothers she has not seen in 25 years. Soon, secrets and resentments come bubbling to the surface, intertwined with grief and a yearning for reconciliation.
“I saw Michel Marc Bouchard’s play in June 2019, and I knew right away that this would be my next project,” says Dolan. “I felt I had to write and film this story about life and death, grief, self-acceptance and family. But then the pandemic intervened, and the project was delayed for months. During the wait, I grew ever-more excited, inspired and impatient to start working on it, to test my limits, to explore the thriller genre, to tell a story in a different way – and with a dream cast. I am privileged to be working with actors who are as committed as I am to doing justice to a story that is at once local and universal. We’re going to bring it to Québec and the world with the highest production standards and no compromises. Bring on 2021!”
What really happened on that night in October 1991? All will be revealed in the five episodes of La Nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s’est réveillé. The series starts shooting in March and will be released on Club illico in 2022.
