Principal photography will begin next week in South Florida on the independent feature Finding Joy, starring Josh Cooke, Liane Balaban, Barry Bostwick and Lainie Kazan. Carlo De Rosa is making his feature film directorial debut with Finding Joy, a comedy written by Shona Tuckman. The film is being produced by Richard DiPatri. The executive producer is Brad Tuckman.

Finding Joy is the delightfully offbeat story of a self-absorbed writer who is forced to move back home with his family when his luck and money run out. Longing to relive his glory days, he learns about happiness when he meets Joy, a spirited young woman who asks him to write her obituary.

Cooke is fresh off the ABC series Better with You and before that, Notes from the Underbelly. Balaban counts among her recent credits NCIS: Los Angeles, Covert Affairs and Last Chance Harvey. The always-busy Bostwick can currently be seen in Cougar Town while Kazan had two recurring roles last season alone on both Desperate Housewives and 'Til Death.

De Rosa was born in 1975 in Italy and raised in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. At the age of 18, he moved to Florida to study psychodrama at Eckerd College where he produced and directed his first short film, High Spirits and earned his B.A. with a Theatre major. After a Hollywood internship on The Negotiator, he returned to Switzerland where he wrote and directed his next short, Killing Time. This second film won several awards on the festival circuit and secured international distribution, which got Carlo an invitation to the Sundance Film Festival; there he participated in the Million Dollar Film Festival sponsored by Universal Pictures. Since then, this young director with the European flair has continued to write, direct and produce fiction and documentary short films, all the while writing full-length screenplays. His latest short film, Larsen, gained international distribution, was screened at over 60 film festivals and won several international and Grand Jury awards. That success helped pave the way for his feature-directing debut, Finding Joy.

De Rosa met Shona Tuckman when Larsen and Finding Joy the screenplay were both in competition at the 2010 Beverly Hills Film Festival, where Larsen won Best Short Film. Shona Tuckman earned a BA in Film and Television production in the UK before moving to the US to work in television production. She wrote, produced and directed three short films which screened at festivals in Los Angeles, Miami and New York, winning the "Breakthrough Film Award" at the New York Independent Film festival. Shona has written numerous feature-length screenplays, many of which have been finalists in international competitions, optioned and/or developed by Los Angeles production companies such as Escape Artists and Nickelodeon.

DiPatri brings over 16 years of physical production and post-production experience, including recent films Standing Still and Yonkers Joe. Brad Tuckman is the President of KSC Kreate, a leading visual and creative content and software agency for the nation's top retailers and manufacturers. The company combines his passion for high-quality photography with the desire to provide business value through cohesive brand imagery and a streamlined creative process. His over 17 years of experience as a business-leader and photographer includes work for Microsoft, Gap and Coca-Cola. Finding Joy is his first venture in the movie business.

The Finding Joy Director of Photography is Pietro Zuercher. The Production Designer is Thomas Criswell. The Editor is Ben Rojas. The Costume Designer is Nicole Tafur.