Aziz Ansari is Set To Direct Bill Murray in an Untitled Comedy Drama For Searchlight Pictures

Aziz Ansari is set to make his directorial debut with a new untitled comedy-drama film for Searchlight Pictures. He will also write the script for the film and co-star alongside the great Bill Murray.

The project is being adapted from Atul Gawande’s non-fiction book “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.” There’s no word on who the actors will be playing in the movie, but I’m a fan of both Ansari and Murray, so I’m interested to see what comes of this collaboration.

If you’re not familiar with the book, here’s a description:

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.

Searchlight Presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield said in a statement: “Aziz Ansari is an incredible talent and, with this script, he brings a singular combination of insightful humor and pathos. We’re thrilled to be partnering with him on his feature directorial debut, which is long overdue, and, of course, working with the genius Bill Murray once again.”

Searchlight will release the film in theaters in 2023.