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Bleecker Street has taken North American rights to the Scott McGehee and David Siegel directed and written feature, The Friend, starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray and a Great Dane named Bing. A 2025 theatrical release is planned.
The film marks Bleecker Street’s second collaboration with Siegel & McGehee, having handled the US release of their 2021 neo-Western drama Montana Story, starring Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague.
In The Friend, writer and teacher Iris (Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Murray) dies suddenly and bequeaths her his beloved 150 lb. Great Dane. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend’s problematic choices in both life and death. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with the animal, she begins to come to terms with her past, her lost friend, and her own creative inner life.
Pic also stars Sarah Pidgeon (Stereophonic, The Wilds), Carla Gugino (The Fall of the House of Usher, San Andreas), Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians, Hustlers), Noma Dumezweni (The Undoing, The Wilds) and Ann Dowd (Hereditary, Bleecker Street’s Mass).
The Friend world premiered to 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics coming out of the Telluride Film Festival and went on to play TIFF and New York. The movie was adapted for the screen by Siegel & McGehee from Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award-winning novel of the same name. (Nunez’ novel was also recently included in the New York Times’ list of the “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.”) The Friend was produced in New York City by McGehee, Siegel and Mike Spreter under the group’s recently formed Big Creek Projects production banner, alongside producer Liza Chasin and her 3dot Productions. Executive producers include Margaret Chernin and Watts.
Bleecker Street founder and CEO Andrew Karpen said: “The Friend is a quintessential New York story, featuring incredible writing and emotional performances that honor the power of friendship, facing grief, and especially the singular comfort animals provide. As a New York-owned and operated company, we are the perfect home for this film and can’t wait to reteam with Scott and David to bring it to audiences next year.”
“We’re thrilled with how people have connected with our film, and we’re very so happy to be re-teaming with Bleecker Street who are such champions of both independent filmmaking and theatrical distribution. We cannot wait for them to introduce audiences to The Friend in local cinemas next year,” said Siegel & McGehee.
The deal was negotiated by Bleecker Street’s Miranda King and Avy Eschenasy with CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.
