Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan (“Mommy”, “It’s the End of the World”) is in the early development of “Rage”, where the television series was set amid the racial tensions of Paris in the 1980s.
“Rage” will be pitched to future partners in the upcoming MIA market in Rome, dedicated to international television series, animation, feature films and documentaries, but explores the rise of the Paris skinhead movement that produced an extremist group known as the 1980s “Chasserre deskin” or skinhead hunter. French skinhead hunters used the same violent methods at times, fighting racist crime with local skinheads.
Dolan, 36, surprised fans in 2023 and announced on Instagram that he has retired from filmmaking. He has not directed the film since the 2019 drama Matthias & Maxime, but he has created the Canadian drama series The Night Logan Woke Up, which aired in 2022. He also directed several music videos, particularly for 2015’s Adele Singles “Hello.” Last year at the Lumiere Film Festival, Dolan said he was working on a new feature project but has provided little details.
“Rage” is produced by Madelon productions based in Paris, Manon Robillot and Laetitia Quentin de Gromard. The screenplay for the show is written by Anaïs Topla, Mathieu Gouny and Marc Herpoux.
More than 60 projects selected by MIA, which will be held from October 6-10, also includes the Dutch television series “Red Light Empire,” about the Holocaust orphan who has decided to build an empire in Amsterdam’s Red Light district, produced by Dutch production group Lemming Film. “Guest” will be the drama following a man named Shadi to help him manage a guesthouse produced by Palestine and Jordan-based Philistine Films, returning to the Bedouin village of Palestine and Jordan-based Philistine Films.
