DEADLINE — 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.
