A survival thriller starring Zachary Levi and Josh Duhamel is heading to theaters later this year.

Inaugural Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights to director Joe Carnahan‘s Not Without Hope and is set to release the film theatrically on Dec. 12, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned. JoBeth Williams, Quentin Plair, Terrence Terrell, Marshall Cook and Floriana Lima round out the cast for the feature that premieres at the Austin Film Festival on Oct. 25.

Not Without Hope centers on the real-life story of a tragic 2009 fishing trip for four friends: Nick Schuyler (Levi) and Will Bleakley (Cook), who played football at the University of South Florida, and NFL players Marquis Cooper (Plair) and Corey Smith (Terrell). The group gets stranded at sea off the coast of Florida when their boat capsizes, leading Coast Guard Captain Timothy Close (Duhamel) to oversee the efforts to bring them home as a storm looms.

Carnahan helmed the movie from a script he penned with E. Nicholas Mariani. Hailing from Highland Film Group, the film is based on Schuyler and Jeré Longman’s best-selling 2010 book of the same name. Director Steven Cantor’s documentary Four Down, which is based on Schuyler’s story, premiered earlier this year at the Sunscreen Film Festival and is being held for release once Not Without Hope finishes its theatrical and VOD run.

Producers for Not Without Hope include Carnahan alongside Michael Jefferson, Adam Beasley and Cindy Bru for Volition Media; Kia Jam for K. Jam Media; Dean Altit for Altit Media Group; Rick French for Prix Productions; David Lipper and Robert A. Daly Jr. for Latigo Films; and Arianne Fraser for Highland Film Group. Highland Film Group is handling international sales.

“We are very excited to have acquired the rights to distribute this powerful, edge of your seat thriller,” says Inaugural Entertainment CEO Kevin Weisberg. “It is very much in the vein of a film like The Perfect Storm, but what makes this project so unique is the NFL and college football backdrop, which dovetails with our marketing plan and release window.”

By Ryan Gajewski, The Hollywood Reporter