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Bridgerton legend Jonathan Bailey and Love Actually icon Bill Nighy unite for new romantic drama

The pair will star as real-life lovers in Dominic Cooke's new film.

English actor Jonathan Bailey poses in a white suit and t-shirt for Netflix's "Bridgerton Season 3" premiere at Alice Tully Hall on May 13, 2024, in New York City.

ANDREA RENAULT/AFP via Getty Images

Published: Tuesday, 10 November 2026 at 12:37 pm

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Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey and Love Actually icon Bill Nighy are set to star in Dominic Cooke’s new romantic drama Insomniac City.

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The upcoming film, which is an adaptation of Bill Hayes's 2017 memoir of the same name, will focus on the real-life romance between writer and photographer Hayes and celebrated neurologist Oliver Sacks.

Bailey will star as Hayes opposite Nighy as Sacks, who – famously dubbed the "poet laureate of contemporary medicine" – was the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, which was adapted into the Oscar-nominated 1990 film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

The new movie will follow Hayes as he arrives in New York City from San Francisco in the wake of a devastating loss, where he begins to rebuild his life and soon falls in love with the city – and Sacks.

Bill Nighy, wearing a black suit and with his hand to his glasses.

Bill Nighy. Joe Maher/Getty Images

Co-writers Cooke and Hayes described the film as "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".

They continued (via Deadline): "It is also a love letter to New York City itself, a place of endless possibility, reinvention and connection."

He added: "Bill Hayes's 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."

Bailey is best known to audiences for starring as a leading Lothario in Bridgerton, while other credits include his role as Fiyero in Wicked, its sequel Wicked: For Good and Jurassic World Rebirth.

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Nighy, meanwhile, is best known for his role in 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually, for which he earned a BAFTA. He has also appeared in the likes of The Men's Room, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter, and more recently lent his voice to The Wild Robot.

Bailey is also among the producers on the film, alongside Troy Lum and Andrew Mason for Brouhaha Entertainment, and Mike Goodridge (Ballad of a Small Player) and Gabrielle Tana (Elsinore).

A production start date is yet to be announced.

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Authors

RadioTimes.com senior trends writer Molly Moss. She is sitting outside wearing a black top, holding a white teacup with a smily face on it to her mouth

Molly MossTrends Writer

Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.

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