Werc Werk Works, the independent production and finance company helmed by CEO Elizabeth Redleaf, and Likely Story, the New York based production company headed by Anthony Bregman, jointly announced today that they will produce Darling Companion, written by Meg Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan and to be directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Academy Award winners Kevin Kline and Diane Keaton as well as Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins and two-time Emmy nominee Elisabeth Moss are set to star.
Darling Companion marks the third installment in Kasdan’s consideration of his generation, following The Big Chill and Grand Canyon, as well as his sixth collaboration with Kevin Kline. The film will be produced by Anthony Bregman for Likely Story, Elizabeth Redleaf for Werc Werk Works and Lawrence Kasdan. Christine Walker, Meg Kasdan and John Kelly will serve as executive producers.
Darling Companion is the story of a woman who loves her dog more than her husband. And then her husband loses the dog.
On a wintry day, Beth (Keaton) saves a bedraggled lost dog from the side of the freeway. Struggling with her distracted, self-involved husband Joseph (Kline) and an empty nest at home, Beth forms a special bond with the rescued animal. When Joseph loses the dog after a wedding at their vacation home in the Rockies, the distraught Beth enlists the help of the few remaining guests and a mysterious young woman in a frantic search. Each member of the search party is affected by the adventure, which takes them in unexpected directions comic, harrowing, and sometimes deeply emotional.
The production is scheduled for a 30-day shoot in Utah beginning in late September.
“Lawrence Kasdan has a rich tradition of making comedies filled with a love of life — and ‘Darling Companion’ has all species of it,” says Anthony Bregman. “This is a movie about the most basic human challenge: to share with each other the higher level of love, companionship, and trust that humans share with their pets.”
