Jonathan Bailey & Bill Nighy To Star In Love Story ‘Insomniac City’ For Director Dominic Cooke — AFM

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy nominee Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton) and Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner Bill Nighy (About Time) are set to star in Dominic Cooke’s (On Chesil Beach) love story Insomniac City about writer and photographer Bill Hayes and celebrated neurologist Oliver Sacks.

Altitude is handling worldwide sales and will introduce the project to buyers at AFM.

Adapted from Hayes’s 2017 memoir of the same name, the story “follows Hayes as he arrives in New York City from San Francisco in the wake of a devastating loss. As he begins to rebuild his life, he falls unexpectedly in love with both the city and Oliver Sacks, whose writing and groundbreaking work in neurology made him one of the most distinctive voices in modern medicine”.

Bridgerton, Wicked and Jurassic World star Bailey will play Hayes opposite Love, Actually and About Time star Nighy as Sacks.

Co-written and adapted for the big screen by Hayes and Cooke, the film will be produced by Troy Lum (Lee) and Andrew Mason (Lee) for their UK-Australian outfit Brouhaha Entertainment, Jonathan Bailey, Mike Goodridge (Ballad Of A Small Player), and Gabrielle Tana (Elsinore). Executive Producers are Will Clarke, Andy Mason and Mike Runagall via Altitude.

The filmmakers described the project as “set against the restless, vibrant backdrop of New York City, Insomniac City is an intimate and uplifting portrait of grief, hope, community and second chances, and of the remarkable possibility of finding love when it is least expected.”

Sacks was described by The New York Times as the “poet laureate of contemporary medicine”. He was the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and Awakenings, which was adapted into the Academy Award-nominated film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Dominic Cooke said: “Insomniac City is a rare story that feels both profoundly intimate and epic in scope. It is a story that celebrates second chances in life; a portrait of two people finding each other at an unexpected moment in their lives. It is also a love letter to New York City itself, a place of endless possibility, reinvention and connection. Bill Hayes’ memoir captures the fragile beauty of love in the face of mortality, and I am honoured to bring that story to the screen alongside our extraordinary actors, Jonathan Bailey, Bill Nighy and our producing team.”

Dominic Cooke is represented by UTA and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates. Bill Nighy is represented by Independent Talent and UTA. Johnathan Bailey is represented by CAA, Anonymous Content; and Conway Van Gelder Grant.