Four-time Emmy winner Dan Levy is diving head first into feature film directing, and he’s brought with him a cast full of stars. It was previously announced that the Schitt’s Creek star is writing, directing, and starring in the original film Good Grief for Netflix as the first project under his partnership with the streamer through his Not A Real Production Company banner. We now know who’ll be joining Levy in the film with Ruth Negga (Passing), Himesh Patel (Yesterday), Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast), Celia Imrie (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Arnaud Valois (BPM (Beats Per Minute)), David Bradley (Harry Potter), and Jamael Westman (Hamilton) making up the all-star lineup.

As a rom-com centered around friendship, the film follows Marc Dreyfuss (Levy) as he tries to forget all about his mother’s death #ArnaudViard, with a comfortable marriage. Following his new husband’s sudden death, however, Marc is left distraught and is finally forced to come to terms with the grief he’s tried so desperately to avoid. In order to find himself after such tragedy, he joins his two best friends on a Parisian weekend of self-discovery. Levy has described the deeply personal nature of the film and how it tackles grief, saying in a statement:

Good Grief is a cautionary tale about friendship and loss and all the mess that comes with it when the truth is something you’ve evaded for most of your life. It’s funny, it’s bittersweet, it’s a project that has helped me work through my own grief. And I hope it does the same for other people as well.

Good Grief should be a fairly natural jump for Levy given his previous directorial experience on television. One of his Schitt’s Creek Emmys was for the work he did as a director on the episode “Happy Ending” alongside Andrew Cividino. He’ll also be directing his new series The Big Brunch, a cooking competition on HBO Max which he’ll also host. Here, he’ll get to direct another talented group with the Oscar-nominated Negga and the Emmy-nominated Patel at the top.

Joining Levy on the production is his Not A Real Production Company partner and president Megan Zehmer. After spending years as his publicist and helping with Schitt’s Creek, Levy upped Zehmer to the president of his new production banner earlier this year. Sister’s Stacey Snider, Kate Fenske, and Debra Hayward will also serve as producers.

Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Good Grief as work continues on Levy’s feature debut.

via Collider