Writing and directing team Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe (Upright Citizens Brigade) have completed casting on their independent feature GREENER GRASS, based on the duo’s SXSW award-winning short of the same name. Beck Bennett (Saturday Night Live), Neil Casey (GHOSTBUSTERS), D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place), Dot-Marie Jones (Glee), Janicza Bravo (Camping), and others join co-stars DeBoer, Luebbe, and the previously announced Mary Holland (Veep) in the dark comedy.
Produced by Natalie Metzger, GREENER GRASS is currently in production in Atlanta. The film is executive produced by Gulp Splash Productions and Vanishing Angle. Producers Metzger’s and Matt Miller’s most recent project is THUNDER ROAD, which won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2018 and had its international premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
GREENER GRASS is set in a timeless suburbia and tells the story of soccer moms Jill (DeBoer) and Lisa (Luebbe). While their children compete on the soccer field, the pair competes in the bleachers in this dark comedy where every adult wears braces on their straight teeth, couples coordinate meticulously pressed outfits, and coveted family members become pawns in the ultimate competition for acceptance.
DeBoer and Luebbe’s short film GREENER GRASS premiered in the U.S. at SXSW 2016 where Jocelyn and Dawn won the Special Jury Recognition for Writing. The short also won the Canal + Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France, resulting in a distribution deal with Canal + in France, Spain, and Africa. Their previous short THE ARRIVAL won several festival awards including Best Direction at Funcinema Crítica de Cine in Argentina, the Audience Award at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, Best Comedy at the Way Down Festival in Georgia, and Best Short Film in the Lounge Comedy Shorts program at the the Napa Valley Film Festival. In 2017, the pair sold a television pilot to IFC.
Rounding out the cast of GREENER GRASS are Jim Cummings (Thunder Road), Lauren Adams (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Asher Miles Fallica (Ozark), Julian Hilliard (The Haunting of Hill House), and John Milhiser (Saturday Night Live).
DeBoer and Luebbe are represented by Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Mary Holland is represented by ICM and Atlas Artists. Beck Bennett is represented by UTA. Neil Casey and D’Arcy Carden are represented by UTA and Rise Management. Dot-Marie Jones is represented by TCA Management. Janicza Bravo is represented by UTA and Kevin Rowe.