Taryn Manning & More Join Indie Comedy ‘Pooling To Paradise’; Julie McNiven, Jon Abrahams Topline ‘Heart To Heart’

Taryn Manning (Orange Is the New Black, Hustle & Flow), Jonathan Lipnicki (The Resident, Jerry Maguire), Dreama Walker (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Gran Torino), Lynn Chen (Saving Face, Go Back To China), and comedian Jordan Carlos (Broad City, Guy Code, Girl Code) are set to star in Pooling To Paradise, an indie comedy directed by Roxy Shih.

Written by Caytha Jentis (Bad Parents, The One), the film follows four millennial strangers who take a ride-share pool on a road trip to Paradise, Nevada. Each at a crossroads in their lives, the trek gives them all an unexpected, deep connection that changes the course of their futures. Jentis and Angela Pedraza are producing the project.

Executive producers are Linda Evans and Nina Warren. Manning is repped by Innovative Artists and Avalon Management; Lipnicki by Rafterman Media and Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson; Walker by The Gersh Agency and Stone Genow Smelkinson Binder & Christopher; Chen by Sovereign Talent Group, Authentic Talent & Literary Management, and Stone Genow Smelkinson Binder & Christopher; Carlos by CAA, Artists First, and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis.

In addition to Pooling To Paradise, Shih is also helming a psychological thriller titled Heart To Heart, which is being led by Julie McNiven (Doom Patrol, Madmen) and Jon Abrahams (Scary Movie). The story centers on Julie and Dennis Cummings who experience a parent’s worst nightmare: a year ago, their young daughter, Madison, was killed in a car accident. The one silver lining is that her organs were immediately donated, saving the lives of several people. Per federal law, organ donation is anonymous unless both parties want to know the other’s identity. The Cummings never have wanted to initiate contact but are willing to meet if someone reached out to meet them to, which happens, but the encounter is not what they expected and once again their lives will be altered forever. Clark Freeman and Kelley Jakle co-star. Autumn Federici and Jake Helgren are producing under The Ninth House banner with Fernando Szew and Mike Moran of MarVista Entertainment serving as executive producers. McNiven is repped by DDO Artists Agency and Industry Entertainment; Abrahams by Management Production Entertainment and Paradigm.

Taiwanese-American producer and director Shih is best known for her 2018 indie breakout Painkillers as well as directing the Amazon sci-fi anthology series Dark/Web. She founded the Taiwanese American Film Festival after winning the Best Feature Debut Film at the Female Eye Film Festival for her directorial debut The Tribe, starring Jessica Rothe, Anne Winters, and Michael Nardelli. Shih is repped by Abrams Artists Agency and manager Seth Nagel.

View this article at Deadline.