Good Grief, the upcoming directorial debut from Dan Levy, has announced its cast.
According to Deadline, the film focuses on a man called Marc Dreyfus who has “chosen to distract himself from the loss of his mom with a comfortable marriage.”
When Marc’s husband also dies unexpectedly, he’s “forced to finally confront the grief he’s tried so hard to avoid, sending him and his two closest friends on a Parisian weekend of self discovery.”
Oscar nominee Ruth Negga (Loving), Himesh Patel (Yesterday), Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast), Celia Imrie (Better Things), Arnaud Valois (BPM Beats Per Minute), David Bradley (Game of Thrones) and Jamael Westman (The Essex Serpent) will star in the film, which marks Levy’s first under his Not A Real Production Company deal with Netflix.
In a statement, Levy described Good Grief as “a cautionary tale about friendship and loss and all the mess that comes with it when the truth is something you’ve evaded for most of your life,” adding: “It’s funny, it’s bittersweet, it’s a project that has helped me work through my own grief. And I hope it does the same for other people as well.”
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, Levy said his “idea of a rom-com” ended up focusing more on friendships in “your 30s than actual relationships”.
“What would a love story look like if it was really about a group of friends in their mid-30s? The clarity that comes with age and the time you’ve spent with these people,” he explained.
“Sometimes we have people in our lives, decades-long friendships, but we know very little about them because the closeness and the intimacy of those relationships is so comfortable that we don’t ask the big questions or investigate them in the way that someone that you meet for the first time might feel inclined to.
“There’s romance in the movie, obviously, but really, it’s a love story about friendship.”
It was recently confirmed that Levy has joined the cast of Sex Education season four as Thomas Molloy, a “cult author” and Maeve’s teacher at the “prestigious” Wallace University.
He will also star in HBO’s upcoming drama The Idol, created by The Weeknd, alongside Lily-Rose Depp, Suzanna Son, Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney, Jane Adams, Jennie Ruby Jane, Eli Rith, Rachel Sennott, Hari Nef, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Mike Dean, Ramsey and Hank Azaria.