Netflix Sets ‘Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson & Dave Franco For Heroin Drama ‘6 Balloons’
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has set Broad City star Abbi Jacobson, Dave Franco, Jane Kaczmarek and Tim Matheson to star in 6 Balloons, a drama on the topical subject of the upper-middle-class heroin epidemic. Marja-Lewis Ryan wrote the script and will direct. The drama unfolds on July 4, as Katie (Jacobson) discovers her brother Seth (Franco) has relapsed on heroin while his 2-year old daughter is in his care. Campfire’s Samantha Housman and Ross Dinerstein are producing with Free Association’s Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan.
Ryan is writing the Splash re-imagining that Tatum will star in with Jillian Bell. Tatum and his Free Association cohorts are producing along with Imagine’s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.
This becomes another strong project on the Netflix feature slate — yesterday the streaming service moved to acquire the Jake Gyllenhaal-starrer Helicopter Heist — and it is an opportunity to launch Jacobson, the breakout star and co-creator of the Comedy Central series Broad City who is also exec producer of FX’s female-centric sitcom Meaty, based on the Samantha Irby memoir and blog B**ches Gotta Eat. Her Broad City was nominated for Best Comedy Series by the WGA. Franco was most recently seen in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Now You See Me 2 and Nerve, and both he and Jacobson are lending their voices to The Lego Ninjago Movie at Warner Bros.
UTA reps Jacobson, Tatum and Ryan, the latter of whom is managed by Kaplan/Perrone’s Josh Goldenberg and lawyered by Gang Tyre’s Tara S. Kole; Franco’s repped by CAA and Relevant; Kaczmarek by Gersh and Greenlight Management’s Adena Chawke; and Matheson is repped by Gersh and Generate.
Related stories
Space Drama 'The Expanse' Acquired By Netflix For Global Distribution
Netflix Sets Dark Comedy Series From Mexican Filmmaker Manolo Caro
Netflix In Lead To Land 'The Helicopter Heist' With Jake Gyllenhaal
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
