Searchlight Pictures has suspended production on Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut, Being Mortal, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
THR learned Wednesday night 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 Ansari and producing partner Youree Henley are working with Searchlight to figure out the next steps. On Thursday, THR confirmed that the complaints of inappropriate behavior involve Bill Murray. When asked about Murray, Searchlight said it doesn’t “comment on investigations.”
Deadline first reported that the allegations specifically involved the actor.
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 Book Review 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.”
Mia Galuppo and Pamela McClintock contributed to this report.
This story was first published on April 20 at 9:29 p.m.
