Myriad Pictures announced today that Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight Rises, Driving Miss Daisy, The Bucket List) and Academy Award winner Diane Keaton (Something’s Gotta Give, The Big Wedding, “The Godfather” trilogy, Annie Hall) will star together for the first time in the heartwarming comedy Life Itself.
The film will be directed by award-winning director Richard Loncraine (The Gathering Storm, My One and Only, Firewall, Wimbledon and Richard III), and is based on the acclaimed novel “Heroic Measures” by Jill Ciment, from a screenplay written by Charlie Peters.
In the film, Keaton and Freeman play a long-married New York City couple who find themselves swept into an emotional and comical real estate bidding war when they put their beloved downtown apartment on the market – which means they must also suddenly come to terms with the possibility of moving from the home where they have spent most of their adult lives.
Life Itself will be produced by Revelations Entertainment in association with Latitude Productions. Lori McCreary, Curtis Burch, Charlie Peters and Tracy Mercer serving as producers. Revelation’s Morgan Freeman will executive produce.
Life Itself tell the story of one eventful weekend in the life of Ruth (Keaton) and Alex (Freeman), an aging New York couple who have finally decided to sell their East Village apartment of 40 years. They fear that they are getting too old to climb the stairs, and Ruth’s realtor niece has convinced them that they can make a small fortune on the sale. Alex, an artist, and Ruth, a former schoolteacher, are enticed by the prospect of suddenly having more money than they ever dreamt possible. But as they prepare for the open house, the couple’s beloved little dog gets sick and has to be taken to an animal hospital, and New York City suddenly goes on high alert when a truck gets stuck in the Midtown tunnel and the driver flees the scene. Over the course of one hectic weekend, Ruth and Alex are swept along as every shift in the breaking tanker story makes the real estate market spike and trough. As the bids fly, Ruth and Alex reflect upon on all the memories that they have shared in their home during the course of 40 happy and fulfilling years together, and they realize that sometimes happiness can’t be measured as easily as square footage or asking prices.
Said Myriad’s D’Amico, “We are happy to be working with Morgan and Lori again (Myriad previously handled international sales for 10 Items or Less) and of course the extraordinary Diane Keaton on this clever and timely comedy set in the world of New York real estate and art. We know that Richard Loncraine will do a great job directing this insightful script by Charlie Peters.”
(Photo Credit: Richard Loncraine)
