According to Variety, Ray Liotta, Trevor Morgan and Armin Mueller-Stahl will topline coming-of-age drama "Local Color," produced by George Gallo, David Permut, Jimmy Evangelatos, Mark Sennet and Julie Lott.

The independently financed film, currently shooting in Louisiana, is a semiautobiographical account of Gallo's life as an impressionist painter during the summer of 1974. Gallo, whose screenwriting credits include Midnight Run and Bad Boys, is writing and directing.

Morgan (Mean Creek, The Sixth Sense) will portray a young man struggling to cultivate his artistic aspirations against the backdrop of an abusive family. Liotta will play the father and Mueller-Stahl will portray an aging Russian painter who mentors the young man.

"Local Color" marks the fourth collaboration between writer-director Gallo and producer Permut after "29th Street," Double Take and Dysfunktional Family.

New Line recently tapped Gallo to pen The Cleaner, starring Lucy Liu and Cedric the Entertainer.

Gallo's work as a landscape artist won the Arts for the Parks Award in 1991 and has been featured in three one-man exhibitions in New York.

"For me, the painting has always taken the edge off writing and directing," Gallo told Daily Variety. "I really enjoy myself when I'm out in a field painting where I don't have to deal with studio executives."

Gallo also admitted it's been bizarre to be filming details of his life, down to the actual paintings and sketchbooks he created three decades ago. "It wasn't until recently that I really had the maturity to look back and understand what I went through back in 1974," he added.

Evangelatos and Lott previously produced Most High, which won narrative feature at the Hamptons Film Festival and the audience award at Chicago Indiefest. Sennet is exec producing Stephen King miniseries "Desperation." Permut is in post-production on a Rodney Dangerfield documentary as well as pre-production on Youth in Revolt, penned by Gustin Nash.