Aziz Ansari’s ‘Good Fortune’ Suspended Indefinitely Amid Writers Strike (Exclusive)

Aaron Couch and Katie Kilkenny
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In one of the more significant disruptions of the writers strike, the Aziz Ansari film Good Fortune is shutting down indefinitely.

Ansari was directing and starring opposite Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves in the comedy, which he also wrote and was producing for Lionsgate. The studio made the decision Thursday.

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The hope is that production will resume at a later date, though it is unclear when that might happen or what will happen if the strike drags on through the summer. Ansari was not writing additional material on the film, per strike rules, according to sources.

Still, the strike proved challenging to the production. Picketers interrupted filming on May 16 and May 17 this week while it attempted to shoot in Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

Several features have been delayed amid the strike. Marvel’s Blade was a month out from a June start date in Atlanta when the studio pressed pause as the script was not yet ready, but this is the first studio feature that was in mid-filming to halt amid the strike.

Ansari rose to prominence as a star of the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation and then earned acclaim as the creator of Netflix’s Emmy-winning series Master of None.

This is the second setback for Ansari as he attempts to direct a first feature. He previously spent time directing Being Mortal for Searchlight, but production permanently shut down in the wake of an investigation into the behavior of star Bill Murray, after an on-set complaint about the actor. “I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn’t taken that way,” Murray told CNBC in April 2022.

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