Get ready to meet Bing, the Great Dane star of The Friend that seems poised to be the next canine star of the big screen after the likes of Arthur the King and Anatomy of a Fall’s Messi. Oh yeah, and Naomi Watts and Bill Murray star in this 2025 new movie as well.
The Friend was first screened at a handful of 2024 film festivals, which allowed it to build up a good bit of buzz. Now movie fans everywhere are going to get their chance to see the movie, but when will that be? What is the movie about? Who else stars in The Friend?
Read on for everything you need to know about the movie.
The Friend release date
The Friend is now playing in movie theaters in New York City, with it set to premiere in nationwide on April 4.
At this time we don’t have a confirmed UK release date for The Friend.
FYI, don’t confuse The Friend with Friendship. The latter is a dark comedy starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd, which will be quite different than The Friend.
The Friend cast
We’ll get to Bing the dog in a minute, but let’s start off by highlighting the human cast of The Friend. Naomi Watts stars as Iris in the movie. Watts is a two-time Oscar-nominated actress (The Impossible, 21 Grams), who most recently starred in the TV limited series Feud: Capote vs the Swans, for which she received an Emmy nomination.
Then there’s Bill Murray, who plays Iris’ friend Walter. Murray is a screen legend, having starred in classic comedies like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Rushmore and Kingpin, while also showing off his dramatic chops in his Oscar-nominated performance in Lost in Translation. This is the second 2025 movie that Murray is starring in, the other being the crime comedy Riff Raff.
The rest of the cast features Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds), Carla Gugino (The Fall of the House of Usher), Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians) and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale).
Then there is Bing, referred to as Apollo in the movie. The Friend is the first acting credit for Bing. Although, Bing has a bit of a social media following, including his own Instagram account, Bing the Great Dane.
The Friend plot
From a script by Scott McGhee and David Siegel, adapting Sigrid Nunez’s novel of the same name, here is the synopsis of The Friend:
“In The Friend, writer and teacher Iris finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor dies suddenly and bequeaths her his beloved 150 lb. Great Dane. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend’s problematic choices in both life and death. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with the animal, she begins to come to terms with her past, her lost friend, and her own creative inner life.”
The Friend trailer
Watch the trailer for The Friend right here:
The Friend reviews
After early reviews from film festivals called The Friend a “witty, wise and warm” story, the consensus appears to be similarly rosy for the movie, which as of March 27 has a 90% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Friend directors
Scott McGhee and David Siegel are the co-directors for The Friend, in addition to being the movie’s co-writers. The duo have been working together since the 90s. Here’s a look at their directing credits to date:
- Suture (1993)
- The Deep End (2001)
- Bee Season (2005)
- Uncertainty (2008)
- What Maisie Knew (2012)
- Montana Story (2021)
The Friend behind the scenes
Bleecker Street is distributing The Friend in the US, while McGhee and Siegel serve as producers with their production company Big Creek Projects. Liza Chasin, through her 3dot Productions company, is also a producer, along with Mike Spreter. Watts and Margaret Chernin are executive producers on the movie.
A key part of the production was preparing Watts to work with Bing. As detailed in a story from Variety, Watts met two times a day for 20 minutes with Bing to create a bond and learn how to control the 145-pound dog, especially in the bustling city of New York, where the movie was shot.
