Aziz Ansari’s (belated) directorial debut Good Fortune will land in 2025, with Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen leading the cast. More here.
Lionsgate has announced a release date for Good Fortune, the upcoming Aziz Ansari comedy that brings a promising cast together with a fun premise for the actor’s long overdue directorial debut. The Parks & Recreation star has been in the frame to direct his first film for some time, and began production on a feature that was ultimately scrapped.
None of that was Ansari’s fault however. Here’s a quick recap: back in 2023, Ansari was in the midst of production on Being Mortal, a comedy movie he was directing for Searchlight Pictures. During production, an accusation was made about Bill Murray’s on-set conduct which ended up shutting production down. The film never got going again and was ultimately scrapped. As debuts go, that’s a pretty tricky situation to find yourself in. At the time that Being Mortal was pronounced as officially dead, Searchlight made it loud and clear that it intended to work with Ansari again.
However, it was Lionsgate that ultimately offered Ansari his second opportunity at a debut feature. Good Fortune has been completed (although not entirely without incident given that Keanu Reeves fractured his kneecap during production) and is now set for release in October of next year.
Good Fortune's action focuses ‘on a well-intentioned but slightly clueless angel (Reeves), who intervenes in the lives of a frustrated gig worker (Ansari) and a successful venture capitalist (Rogen).’ The cast also includes Keke Palmer and Sandra Oh.
Reeves has another comedy on the way, Outcome, a darker film that also features Jonah Hill (who also directs). That one has been backed by Apple and we don’t yet know when it will arrive either, but as Reeves takes a break from being John Wick, he seems keen on jumping back into other genres.
Given that Lionsgate has also pushed its Michael Jackson biopic Michael to an unspecified autumn release date, this part of the year will form a crucial period of Lionsgate’s 2025 performance. It’s looking to build successes beyond its usual franchise performers such as the aforementioned Wick films and their upcoming spin-offs. We’ll let you know more about Good Fortune as we hear it, but we’ve got to wait for a while longer yet.
