After directing multiple episodes of his Netflix series “Master Of None,” including all of season three, comedian Aziz Ansari (“Parks & Rec“) is making his feature film directorial debut for Searchlight Pictures. The film is yet to be titled, but is being referred to for now as “Being Mortal.” Ansari will also take a role in the film alongside Bill Murray, who was previously announced, and now another strong comedic actor has joined the project.
Deadline reports Ansari’s pal Seth Rogen (“Pam & Tommy“) has joined the upcoming pic and production is said to begin next month. Rogen and Ansari previously worked together on “Observe & Report,” “Funny People,” and “This Is The End.”
Ansari is juggling a lot on the movie as he’ll also write the script based on the non-fiction book “Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters In The End” authored by practicing surgeon Atul Gawande.
The book explores the concept of when pain management with medical treatment is no longer an option and when death might be more humane for patients. A controversial concept in the United States as the right-to-die movement and assisted suicide becomes more acceptable in modern society along with more countries legalizing the practice.
Here is the synopsis of “Being Mortal” from the author’s official website:
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 hispprofession’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 apperson’s last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.
The untitled movie is eyeing a release date sometime in 2023.