British actors Jonathan Bailey and Bill Nighy will portray writer Bill Hayes and neurologist Oliver Sacks in Insomniac City. Dominic Cooke directs the adaptation of Hayes’s 2017 memoir, which follows a move to New York after bereavement and a late-life romance. Altitude is introducing the project to film buyers.
British actors Jonathan Bailey and Bill Nighy will take the central roles in Insomniac City, the film directed by Dominic Cooke.[1], [2]
Bailey plays Bill Hayes, the writer and photographer whose memoir supplies the story, while Nighy portrays neurologist and author Oliver Sacks. Cooke and Hayes wrote the screen adaptation together, drawing on the book that Hayes published in 2017 about his life in New York.[1]
The story begins with Hayes leaving San Francisco after a devastating loss. In New York he builds a new life and develops a relationship with Sacks during the neurologist’s final years. Grief, community and renewed hope are part of the announced premise. Sacks’s books include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings; the latter became an Academy Award-nominated film with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.[1]
Altitude, the film sales company, is handling worldwide sales and presenting Insomniac City at the American Film Market, an industry gathering for film buyers and sellers. The producers include Troy Lum and Andrew Mason through Brouhaha Entertainment, a company based in the United Kingdom and Australia. Bailey also has a producing role, alongside Mike Goodridge and Gabrielle Tana. Altitude’s Will Clarke, Andy Mason and Mike Runagall are executive producers.[1]
