Searchlight Pictures has halted production on Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut, Being Mortal, has confirmed.
THR has learned that the Disney-backed studio made the decision to halt filming following a complaint filed last week and is investigating the matter. A source close to production told THR that the complaint was unrelated to Ansari and that comedian and producing partner Youree Henley is working with Searchlight to figure out next steps. The nature of the complaint is still unclear.
Deadline was the first to report the news of the suspension.
Starring Bill Murray, Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer, Being Mortal is based on the non-fiction book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Ansari not only directed but also wrote the screenplay and will have a role in the film.
Details about the film are scant, but Gawande’s book explores the concepts of death and aging and how the medical profession tends to mishandle both. The New York Times Review of Books described it as “a moving and insightful look at aging and death in our society and the damage we do when we make it a medical rather than a human problem.” Searchlight has previously described the project as at the intersection of “enlightening humor and pathos”.