Variety reports that Soul Surfer herself, AnnaSophia Robb, and Friday Night Lights actress Aimee Teegarden have signed for Life at These Speeds, an independent drama which has already snatched up Douglas Booth and Billy Crudup. Executive produced by Sam Rockwell and set to be directed by Leaf Tilden, the drama — based on Jeremy Jackson‘s novel — centers on “a rural teenager (Booth) who loses his best friends in a tragic accident and channels his survivor’s guilt into an addiction to running, becoming a world-class distance runner in the process.”

On one side of the thematic and narrative coin, Robb will play “an over-achiever who struggles to break through his grief and defenses,” while Teegarden has been cast as “his hometown soul mate.” (Allow me, for one second, to be snarky and say holy familiar.) Tilden, shockingly, likes and appreciates this casting, calling both actresses “such special young artists” who “want to help tell this story.” Teegarden chipped in with her own thoughts, calling Speeds “a wonderful teen story about first romances and the passion for sports in rural America” with a (spoiler alert) “unexpected, yet emotionally satisfying, ending.”

Neither addition is one I have much feeling toward, though that wouldn’t stop me from deeming it fairly solid. If that doesn’t make sense, a) don’t question my logic, and b) simply think of them as another respectable step for what’s shaping up to be a nice little film. That’s all I actually want Life at These Speeds to be, anyway.

Shooting is still scheduled for a late March start, so I’m still expecting a release sometime in 2013.

Are you happy to hear that Robb and Teegarden are joining in on the sprinting fun?