We never pass up a story about Chicago’s favorite son, Bill Murray. And Bill Murray is trending again. Not for his globetrotting antics or reliving the same day in February over and over again.
Murray has joined up with Emmy award winner, Master of None creator, writer, director, and star, Aziz Ansari in the upcoming film adaptation of the 2014 non-fiction, international best selling book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by surgeon Atul Gawande.
The book is about the modern experience of mortality, about what it’s like to get old and die, how medicine has changed this and how it hasn’t, where our ideas about death have gone wrong. Atul Gawande outlines a story that crosses the globe, as he examines his experiences as a surgeon and those of his patients and family, and learns to accept the limits of what he can do.
The best selling author has written 3 previous books prior to this and was thrilled to share the news of the film on his Twitter feed saying,
“Being Mortal. The movie. Written and directed by @azizansari. With Bill Murray. I got to help as executive producer.
All I have to say is, Yessssss.”
Ansari wrote the script, will appear in the film, and is also producing alongside Youree Henley, with Taylor Friedman and Cameron Chidsey overseeing the project for Searchlight. Henley worked with Murray previously as a producer on the actor’s 2020 film On the Rocks. The film is slated for theatrical release in 2023.
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In addition to acting, writing, and producing, this will be Ansari’s first feature film he will be directing, however he is no stranger to the director’s chair as he has successfully directed 11 episodes of his Emmy award winning Netflix original series Master of None. The Netflix series also featured the familiar face of another Chicago favorite, The Chi’s Lena Waithe who also wrote 6 of the episodes and was featured as the star of the show during the 3rd (and final) season while Ansari stepped behind the camera and directed. He also directed his most recent comedy special, Aziz Ansari: Nightclub Comedian, for Netflix.
Ghostbusters star Bill Murray earned an Academy Award nomination in 2004 for his role opposite Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. The star from Wilmette and The Second City alum is one of Chicago’s most recognizable celebrities who has also starred in films such as Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Groundhog Day, and Kingpin and he’s currently promoting a film called New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization which captures the screen legend and world-renowned cellist Jan Vogler‘s final performance of their European New Worlds tour which is currently being screened in select theaters until the end of February. Murray is making his Marvel Studios debut with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania which is scheduled to be released on July 28, 2023.
Plot details have not been announced and it is not yet revealed who Ansari or Murray will play in the film. No other casting has been announced at this time.
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