EXCLUSIVE: Riverdale star KJ Apa has been set to lead the ensemble cast of The Last Summer, the Gulfstream Pictures romantic comedy that will be directed by Bill Bindley. Principal photography starts April 23. The Last Summer follows a group of high school grads whose lives intersect in Chicago over the summer before they start college. The script was written by Bill Bindley and Scott Bindley with a polish by April Prosser (Plus One).

The film is being financed by Gulfstream. Mike Karz and Wayne Rice will produce. Barbara McCarthy is casting. Gulfstream, run by Bindley and Karz, is backed by Korea-based 3D stereoscopic leader Redrover Co., Ltd., and a consortium of U.S. private equity funds.

Apa, who co-starred in the Lasse Hallstrom-directed A Dog’s Purpose, currently stars as Archie Andrews on the CW series Riverdale, based on the Archie comics. Apa is repped by UTA, Luber Roklin Entertainment, Red11 Management and attorney Karl Austen.

Gulfstream is separately percolating a feature adaptation of the Julia Butterfly Hill’s autobiography The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods, and King David for Warner Bros based on the book David: The Divided Heart by Rabbi David Wolpe. Todd Komarnicki is writing the latter.