Stars continue to sign up for Laura Chinn’s directorial debut, Suncoast. Ella Anderson, Daniella Perkins, Amarr, and Ariel Martin join the already announced Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson, and Nico Parker. The announcement comes as production, which is being supervised by Searchlight Pictures, has officially begun on the project this month. Their specific roles are being kept under wraps, but given that Parker’s character, a teenager, will be the show’s protagonist, it’s safe to assume that the new cast members will have some sort of connection to him. The narrative requires that Parker’s heroine deal with the pressures of daily life as her controlling mother keeps a close eye on her.
In short order, she is tasked with transporting her younger brother to a specialist institution, where she meets an eccentric activist at the heart of a protest involving a ground-breaking medical case. For her part, Linney plays Parker’s mother, while Harrelson takes on the role of the activist. Suncoast, like Chinn’s other pop tv comedy, Florida Girls, will be autobiographical. In her recently published book, Acne, Chinn recounts the traumatic experiences she had as a result of her skin problems, which she began experiencing at the tender age of ten. Given the wealth of information included in the biography, Suncoast is probably not the last film adaptation of her life.
There is plenty of source material for her to draw from should she choose to produce other feature-length films. The Suncoast screenplay by Chinn was selected for inclusion on the 2020 Black List, a poll of the finest unproduced screenplays, so we know to expect a good time at the movies. Anderson received two Kid’s Choice Award nods for her portrayal of Piper Hart on Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger. In the comedy-adventure The Boss (2016), she co-starred with Melissa McCarthy as Rachel Rawlings. In addition to her success with Knight Squad, Perkins is a Nickelodeon alum who has recently been promoted to a lead role on Grown-ish.
Amarr has been nominated for a Young Entertainer award for his work in American Housewife, Bunk’d, and Liv & Maddie. Colin in Black and White, on Netflix; 4400, on The CW; Holiday Rush, also recently. Martin, better known by her stage name Baby Ariel, has been featured in Time and Forbes and is now branching out into the acting world. In the thriller “Oracle,” she co-starred with Ryan Destiny. Producing Suncoast are Jeremy Plager, Francesca Silvestri, Kevin Chinoy, and Oly Obst. Chris Stinson and Amy Greene serve as executive producers, with Anna Schwartz contributing as a co-producer. We now have Chinn in the director’s chair as principal photography for Suncoast gets begun in Charleston, South Carolina. The premiere date of the new adolescent drama has not yet been determined.