Bron Studios, Gloria Sanchez Mount Dark Comedy ‘Friend Of Bill’
Bron Studios (Birth of a Nation) and Gloria Sanchez Productions are partnering to produce the dark comedy Friend of Bill, a 2011 Blacklist screenplay. The film will star Lizzy Caplan (Now You See Me 2) and will be directed by Amy Rice (By the People: The Election of Barack Obama). The film is written by Harper Dill. Bron Studios, Hand and Gary Sanchez Productions previously collaborated on the critically acclaimed indie hit Welcome To Me, starring Kristen Wiig.
The producers on Friend of Bill are Bron Studios’ Aaron L. Gilbert, Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay of Gloria Sanchez Prods., Margot Hand of Picture Films and Lizzy Caplan. Jason Cloth and Richard McConnell are executive producers via Creative Wealth.
The project is scheduled to begin production in November on Vancouver Island. The story follows a writer (Caplan) who is arrested for public intoxication, who is forced to take a sabbatical in order to kick her alcoholism. She chooses to do so back in the idyllic small town where she grew up, only to find solace and sobriety nearly impossible to achieve while dealing with a complicated relationship with her mother and a pair of male suitors; one of them a former teacher of hers and the other an eccentric who also happens to volunteer at the AA meetings she secretly attends.
Caplan will next be seen opposite Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in the Robert Zemeckis film Allied, as well as in the fourth season of her Emmy-nominated turn as Virginia Johnson on Showtime’s Masters of Sex.
Rice’s other credits include Hurricane of Fun: The Making of Wet Hot at Netflix, and Snervous Tyler Oakley. Dill has written projects for Paramount and Universal, and is currently adapting a book with Alloy Entertainment and New Line.
Besides Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, other current productions for Bron include Denzel Washington’s Fences, Migeul Arteta’s Beatriz at Dinner (starring Salma Hayek and John Lithgow), and director Jason Reitman’s Tully, which stars Charlize Theron.
WME packaged the film and is representing domestic rights. Besides WME representing Caplan, Rice and Dill, Caplan is also repped by Rise Management and Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein. Rice is also repped Management 360 and Hansen Jacobson, and Dill is also repped Black Box Management and Hanson Jacobson.
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