Lizzy Caplan to star in “Friend of Bill” dark comedy

PanARMENIAN.Net - Bron Studios and Gloria Sanchez Productions have tapped Lizzy Caplan to star in the dark comedy “Friend of Bill” with production set to start in November on Vancouver Island, Variety reports.

The film is written by Harper Dill and will be directed by Amy Rice. The producers 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 script was named to the 2011 Blacklist. Bron Studios, Hand and Gary Sanchez Productions previously collaborated on ” Welcome To Me,” starring Kristen Wiig.

“’Friend of Bill” has been a passion project for both Lizzy and I since we first became aware of Harper’s screenplay,” said Elbaum. “We’re delighted that Bron Studios shared our commitment and wanted to partner again.”

Caplan plays a writer arrested for public intoxication and 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.

“It’s rare to embark on a project with an all-female creative team,” said Caplan. “We take this exciting responsibility quite seriously, and can’t wait to set off telling a darkly funny, character-driven story about the difficulties that come with being a grown up sharing a house with her family and a head with her demons.”

Caplan most recently starred in “Now You See Me 2” and will next be seen opposite Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in the Robert Zemeckis film “Allied.” She’s also in the fourth season of Showtime’s “Masters of Sex.”

Rice’s credits include “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama” at HBO and “Hurricane of Fun: The Making of Wet Hot” at Netflix, and “Snervous Tyler Oakley.”

Bron’s current productions include Nate Parker’s “The Birth of A Nation,” Denzel Washington’s “Fences”; Migeul Arteta’s “Beatriz at Dinner,” starring Salma Hayek and John Lithgow, and “Tully,” starring Charlize Theron from director Jason Reitman.