Gabriela Cowperthwaite is following up Kate Mara-starrer “Megan Leavey” with another feature inspired by a true story. She’s teaming up with “Suspiria” actress Dakota Johnson on “The Friend,” a drama based on an Esquire article of the same name. The Playlist reports that the pic is being shopped at The European Film Market.
“The Friend” centers on couple, Matthew (Casey Affleck) and Nicole Teague (Johnson), who receive life-shattering news: Nicole has terminal cancer and is expected to die within six months. The couple’s best friend (Jason Segel) moves in with them to help however he can.
Scheduled to kick off production next month, “The Friend” marks Cowperthwaite’s first project since 2017’s “Megan Leavey,” a critically acclaimed portrait of a marine corporal (Mara) who forms a deep connection with a military combat dog. Cowperthwaite launched her career in documentary filmmaking, and is best known for helming the 2013 killer whale doc “Blackfish.”
Regarding her transition from docs to narratives, Cowperthwaite told us, “A lot of tools transfer over from one to the other, but all in all I do hope to be able to do both in the future. Whether it’s documentary or whether it’s narrative is all story-dependent to me,” she explained.
