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EXCLUSIVE: Following their work together on Ted Melfi’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama St. Vincent, Naomi Watts (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) and Bill Murray (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) have been set to topline The Friend, an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s New York Times bestselling novel, from writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Montana Story).
Others set to star in the indie include Sarah Pidgeon (Tiny Beautiful Things), Golden Globe nominee Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians), Emmy winner Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Noma Dumezweni (The Watcher).
Winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction, The Friend follows a New York writer in the aftermath of her lifelong friend and mentor’s unexpected death. Thereafter, she’s left to deal with his complicated literary legacy, three eccentric ex-wives — and a massive, brokenhearted Great Dane named Apollo.
Currently in production on the film in New York, Siegel & McGehee are producing through their new company Big Creek Projects. Also producing under her 3dot Productions banner(The Lost City, Anatomy of a Scandal), after collaborating with Watts on Showtime limited series The Loudest Voice, is Liza Chasin. Watts also serves as an exec producer on the film, alongside Mike Spreter for Big Creek and Margaret Chernin for 3dot Productions. CAA Media Finance is representing the film’s domestic rights.
Currently, Watts can be seen playing socialite Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, the latest season of Ryan Murphy’s acclaimed FX anthology Feud, which premiered at the end of January. Also recently collaborating with Murphy on his popular Netflix series The Watcher, she’ll next be seen starring in the drama Emmanuelle, from Venice prize winner Audrey Diwan (Happening).
Following roles in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and The French Dispatch, Murray will reprise his role as Ghostbuster Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which Sony is releasing on March 22nd.
McGhee and Siegel came to The Friend after writing, directing and producing Montana Story, a sibling drama starring Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague, which Bleecker Street acquired out of TIFF. Prior to that, the duo directed the acclaimed custody-battle drama What Maisie Knew, starring Julianne Moore and Alexander Skarsgård, which debuted at the same festival. Other past credits for the duo include the romantic thriller Uncertainty with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, family drama Bee Season starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche, and crime drama The Deep End with Tilda Swinton.
Watts is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Murray by Nochimson Law; Pidgeon by Gersh, Anonymous Content, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Wu by CAA, Principal Entertainment LA, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Dowd by Innovative Artists and Principal Entertainment LA; and Dumezweni by Conway van Gelder Grant and Principal Entertainment LA.
Siegel & McGehee and Big Creek are repped by Black Bear and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. 3dot Productions is with Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
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