Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates join Xavier Dolan's first English-language film

Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates have been added to the star cast of Xavier Dolan's first English-language upcoming film, it has been revealed.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film tells the story of fictional actor John F. Donovan played by Kit Harington, famous for playing a Marvel-style superhero, whose life and career are turned upside-down when his private correspondence with an 11-year-old fan is exposed and made to look indecent by a villainous gossip columnist played by Jessica Chastain.

Bates is being slated for the role of Donovan's high-powered manager, while Sarandon will play his mother.

The 'Mommy' director, who co-wrote the script for Donovan with fellow Canadian Jacob Tierney, went to great lengths to dispel the notion that his new film will be a Hollywood satire, highlighting the fact that not a single scene in Donovan's script is set in Los Angeles.

Dolan says the film will be a very private take on how family, and specifically mothers, both Sarandon's role as Donovan's mother and the yet-to-be-cast role of the mother of Donovan's 11-year-old pen pal, respond to their sons' fame.