Maria Valverde will be participating in the ultimate battle between the young and the old…

The 25-year-old Spanish actress has signed on to star in British writer/director Alastair Paton’s action movie 400 Boys, which is billed as a fast-paced thriller set amid a youth subculture.

Paton’s project is described as “a race against time where the old are trapped in worn out bodies and the young fear life more than death and a battle between old and young commences.”

Valverde—who won Spain’s Goya Award for Best Actress as a teenager for her work in La flaqueza del bolchevique—forms part of the eclectic international cast that includes Canadian actress Jodelle Ferland (Twilight Saga:  Eclipse, The Cabin in the Woods, Tideland), Elliot Knight (Sinbad), Charlie Rowe (Neverland), German actress Chiara von Galli and Lucy Boynton (Miss Potter, Sense & Sensibility), as well as former French international World Cup-winning soccer star-turned-actor Frank Lebeouf (Taking Sides), Chinese actress BingBing Li (Resident Evil:  Retribution) and pop sensation Karena NG.

400 Boys scheduled to begin shooting in October. The movie, which is set for an eight-week shoot, will film on location in Hong Kong, Macau and at Guangzhou’s ACE Studios in China.

The title has already secured a 6,500 screen release in China through Pegasus Motion Pictures Distribution and a number of key international territories are sold including Spain, Latin America, France and French-speaking Canada, Australia, Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux and Eastern Europe.

“We loved the director’s vision and the material was fresh, pacy and exciting,” said China Hollywood Film & Television Entertainment‘s Ricky Tong. “This movie is for the youth audience worldwide.”

Pegasus Motion Pictures Distribution’s Raymond Wong added: “It’s an original story, a great script, is fast, has a young cast and with a 16-30 target audience, it’s the perfect film for us to release in China.”