Chris D’Elia Joins ‘Life In A Year’; Treat Williams & More Co-Star In ‘The Great Race’

Undateable alum Chris D’Elia has come aboard the Mitja Okorn-helmed romantic drama Life in a Year, joining topliners Cara Delevingne and Jaden Smith along with Nia Long and Cuba Gooding Jr. (who replaced Terrence Howard in the film). Written by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, Life in a Year is shooting in Toronto. Overbrook Entertainment and Marc Bienstock are producing the YA pic, which centers on a 17-year-old boy who is determined to give his dying girlfriend their entire life together, in the year she has left. D’Elia has a couple of Netflix projects coming up. He co-stars in the horror comedy Little Evil, with Adam Scott and Evangeline Lilly, set for release later this year, and has a comedy special, Man on Fire, that will stream June 27. He’s repped by CAA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman.

Treat Williams, Henry Thomas, Bruce Davison, James Russo, Brad Leland, Brea Bee and Brian Presley just finished The Great Race, which marks Presley’s feature directorial debut. The film is based on a true story of the teams’ heroic mushers in Alaska in 1925 who run through a blizzard against time to save the snowed-in people of Nome during a diphtheria outbreak. Presley, who was a producer and star of the 2011 Kurt Russell-Melanie Lynskey film Touchback, also scripted The Great Race and produced it under the banner of his newly formed shingle Rebel Road Entertainment. Mark David and Will Wallace also produced. In the incident known as the Great Race of Mercy, Nome’s lone physician feared that there was an epidemic when the local children came down with diphtheria. The city’s local hospital was out of the antitoxin, and the nearest serum was 700 miles away, so 20 mushers led by Leonhard Seppala (Presley) braved the treacherous weather to save the children. The famous dog Balto (and his musher Gunnar Kaasen) were part of that mission. Presley is repped by Jay Cohen.