David Oyelowo has joined the lead cast of Little Five, an indie film produced by Anne Hathaway's Somewhere Pictures and Pigasus Pictures, according to Deadline.

Oyelowo will play Randall, a former cycling champion who becomes an unlikely mentor. The character anchors a story inspired by the Little 500, the storied intramural cycling race held each spring at Indiana University — an event that gained wider pop-culture recognition through the 1979 film Breaking Away.

He joins previously announced cast members Ariana Greenblatt and Rain Spencer. Greenblatt is known for her role in the 2023 blockbuster Barbie; Spencer appeared in the streaming series The Summer I Turned Pretty. The Deadline report also confirms several supporting roles: Sasha Frolova as Ingrid, Nadia Alexander as Josie, Drew Powell as Will, and Max Cortezi as TFG.

Ian Samuels is directing from a screenplay by Gillian Williams. On the producing side, Hathaway is joined by Adam Shulman and Johnathan Rice for Somewhere Pictures, with Zachary Spicer producing for Pigasus Pictures — an independent outfit whose name signals the project's lean, non-studio footing. Oyelowo is represented by CAA, Hamilton Hodell, and Del Shaw.

What makes the package interesting is the mix of star wattage and indie scale. Hathaway's Somewhere Pictures has been building a slate of projects she produces without necessarily appearing in, lending marquee value to films that might otherwise need it. Oyelowo, an actor who moves between large-scale studio work and smaller character-driven films, fits that mould: a name audiences recognise, deployed in service of a script rather than a tentpole budget.

The film's connection to the Little 500 race gives it a built-in setting and texture. The Indiana University event, run since 1951, pits student teams against one another on cinder-track bicycles — a local tradition with enough dramatic architecture for a coming-of-age story to build on.

No release date or distributor has been announced.