Searchlight Pictures has suspended production on Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut Being Mortal, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
THR has learned that the Disney-backed studio made the decision to put a pause on the shoot following a complaint filed last week and is investigating the matter. A source close to the production told THR the complaint is not related to Ansari and that the comedian and producing partner Youree Henley are working with Searchlight to figure out the next steps. It is still unclear as to the nature of the complaint.
Deadline was first to report the news of the suspension.
Starring Bill Murray, Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer, Being Mortal is based on the Atul Gawande nonfiction book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. As well as directing, Ansari wrote the script and will play a role in the movie.
Details on the film are scant, but Gawande’s book explores the concepts of death and aging and how the medical profession tends to mishandle both. The New York Times Review of Books described it as a “moving and clear-eyed look at aging and death in our society, and at the harms we do in turning it into a medical problem, rather than a human one.” Searchlight has previously described the project as being at the intersection of “insightful humor and pathos.”
Source: Hollywood
