Actor David Henrie will make his feature directorial debut with the coming-of-age movie This Is the Year.
The pic follows a nebbish high school senior and his best friends as they embark on a road trip to attend the greatest music festival of the year in a last-ditch effort to win over the girl of his dreams. Henrie wrote the screenplay with Bug Hall, Pepe Portillo and Sienna Aqualini.
Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s AMBI Group is behind the feature, which is set to begin filming in September in Alabama.
James Henrie and Leo Severino will produce via Novo Media Group. Executive producers are Jason Weinberg, Luca Riemma and Paolo Aquilini, who is financing the movie with AMBI.
Iervolino’s TaTaTu, a blockchain-based social entertainment platform, will also produce and finance the film. TaTaTu is also involved in the AMBI projects Lamborghini, starring Antonio Banderas and Alec Baldwin, and The Sound of Freedom.
Said Henrie of the film, “I can’t wait to bring to life a heartfelt and fun movie in the vein of what John Hughes did so well in the ’80s. My hope is that it will truly mean something to our audience.”
Henrie, who is repped by ICM and Untitled, is best known for his role on the long-running Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place. He also is set to play young Ronald Reagan in the Dennis Quaid-starrer Reagan.