Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights to Legion M’s critically acclaimed dark comedy ‘My Dead Friend Zoe’ which won SXSW Film Festival’s Audience Award this year. The film stars Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead, Star Trek: Discovery), Natalie Morales (Parks and Recreation, No Hard Feelings), Academy Award nominee Ed Harris (Westworld, Top Gun: Maverick, Apollo 13), and Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby, Shawshank Redemption, Invictus). The stellar supporting cast includes Gloria Reuben (ER, Lincoln) and Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts, Free Guy). The film is the directorial debut of Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, a former U.S. Army infantry paratrooper and Iraq War Bronze Star veteran.
My Dead Friend Zoe is Hausmann-Stokes’ creative take on the post-war experience and a tribute to veterans of all generations. Co-written with A.J. Bermudez, Hausmann-Stokes and Bermudez’s poignant script laid the foundation for powerful performances from a truly all-star cast. Martin-Green’s portrayal of Merit, hailed by critics as one of the best performances of the year, showcases the depth of a friendship forged in Afghanistan and the complexity of a divided family in rural Oregon. Coupled with Harris’ depth and emotional resonance as Merit’s grandfather battling Alzheimer’s, the two characters navigate their differing war experiences with a sense of humor that is key to the film’s emotional impact.
My Dead Friend Zoe is a dark comedy-drama that follows the journey of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe (Natalie Morales), her dead best friend from the Army. Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor (Morgan Freeman), the tough love of her mother (Gloria Reuben) and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit’s cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit’s estranged grandfather (Ed Harris) — holed up at the family’s ancestral lake house — begins to lose his way and needs the one thing he refuses… help. At its core, this is a buddy film about a complicated friendship, a divided family, and the complex ways in which we process grief.
Briarcliff plans to release the film in theaters nationwide on November 1, 2024.
Image provided courtesy of Cinematic Red
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