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The list of young actors who transition to adult leading men isn’t that long… Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, Christian Bale, etc. Zac Efron is hoping to make that transition so he’s linked himself to a pair of projects he hopes will give him the chance to broaden his range. One of them would be his first action turn, in a Ludlum-esque spy thriller. Efron has a just made a deal at Universal for Fire, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis that was published by Image Comics.
The plan is for Efron to play a college student who is recruited by the CIA, only to find that he has been trained for a program that creates expendable agents. Bendis, the fanboy favorite whose comic book creations include “Ultimate Spider-Man”, will write the script. While little material moves during Sundance, Efron and Bendis got the deal after they schlepped around to three studios, pitching the project on a rainy day last Friday. The project has the steady hand of Neal Moritz, who’ll produce with Circle of Confusion’s David Engel. Efron and Alchemy Entertainment’s Jason Barrett will be exec producers.
Efron has made a separate deal at Warner Bros to star in a Back To The Future-like film that melds two projects. One’s a pitch from writers Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski, and the other is a WB project called Algorithm that the studio was already developing. Nick Stoller, the Forgetting Sarah Marshall director who just wrapped Get Him To The Greek, will produce along with Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff. Alan Riche is exec producer along with Efron and Barrett.
Efron’s quest to be taken seriously, and to shed the teen heartthrob label thrust upon him after a trio of hit High School Musical films, really began when he bailed on a Footloose remake to instead re-team with his 17 Again director Burr Steers in The Death And Life Of Charlie St. Cloud, playing a young man who carries the guilt over the death of his younger brother. It isn’t easy, as one of the films he made recently, Me and Orson Welles, was barely seen. But he wasn’t looking for box office as much as the chance to be part of a strong cast in an art film. Good for him.
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I think it is premature to judge his shelf-life or even how good an actor he is. He’s not Leo of course, but few are. Most actors don’t break out till a lot later so it’s not sound to compare Efron to Brad or even Johnny who both had several more years on him when they broke out and had that level of fame. It is clear he has talent and from people I know in Vancouver who worked with him, he was extremely professional on set and very hardworking. He deserves a chance to develop his talent, he is working hard to exceed expectations and to diversify his repertoire and push his boundaries. Hats off and good luck to the kid I say.
Zac Efron the next Brad Pitt? Well, nothing is 100% impossible, but his potential career trajectory might be closer to that of ZaSu Pitts, not Brad Pitt…..
he’s got something otherwise where are all the comments coming from
EU TE AMO ZAC
Give him a chance – seems like he’s actually interested in learning the craft, not just the money. LOL – his outfit is straight out of Depp’s closet. As for Leo, he IS in the closet.
I think if he plays his cards right he’d have a career more akin to Tom Hanks. Likeable actor who plays likeable characters. I see rom-coms in his future. But he just doesn’t project the kind of masculinity that Leo had and continues. He’s very Southern California, very pretty, very put together. It doesn’t help that he’s also slender and slight in a way that really punctuates his age. He looks young. It’ll be hard to take him seriously for a while. I can’t see him in anything action oriented because he just doesn’t look masculine enough.
Zac Efron is finally going for more serious parts that doesn’t deal with singing and playing basketball. Finally! But very surprising to hear he would star in movies, that I can never picture him in. Also, to the fact that no one hadn’t mentioned Michael J Fox in here. All I see as I go down the comments are Johnny Depp, Leo Dicaprio, and Brad Pitt. Has anyone really thought about Zefron ever becoming the next MJ Fox? Anyone seen “17 again”? It’s a lot like Back to the Future. I always had some urge to know that ZE and MJF are a lot a like, I know I’m not the only one who thinks this. I searched and many people thought the same. Just go to Yahoo search type in ‘Zac Efron Michael’ and you will see Michael J Fox already in the suggesting box next to Zac’s name. Many already searched and there are many sites explaining how they’re a like and how Zac admires him. He also loves BTTF, which proves he has good taste in movies. Zac Efron is really going for this and we don’t know yet what kind of person he will become.
it’s hardly any credible when some of you dismisses the kid completely as though you can see the future. There have been countless of references about Leo being a Oscar nominated actor before he began a heart throb. And what’s this all about really? Do you seriously expect everyone to have the exact same career destiny as Leo?
Not everyone has to be Oscar nominated before fame to become a good actor later. Seriously, the comparison makes no sense. Zac is obviously not as good (well, even if he is we will have no evidence to that) as Leo when they are of the same age but that doesn’t mean anything.
This boy obviously has got potential. It’s raw, it’s weak, but whether or not it could grow to become something powerful… well, only time can tell. Most importantly, he’s willing to work on it.
The person who compared taylor lautner to him is a total joke. Taylor is obviously still in the middle of Efron’s HSM stage. Efron has moved on and is getting himself attached to WB big budget action projects.
I personally don’t see him as an action junky but i understand his adolescent urge to become suave, cool, and masculine on the big screen.
I have been a fan of Zac since 2005. I was only 9 when I found out who he was and unlike most Efron fans, I never found him cute until I was ten. SO I was not really biased and I am still not. I watched him, Summerland, Derby Stallion, Miracle Run, The High School Musical trilogy, Hairspray and 17 Again. I am going to honest and say Zac is really talented actor. IS he great? NO. He could get better. Every actor in holloywood deserves a chance. I mean sure there are some who really can’t act, but in the future thye may get better, but I say give Zac a little credit for trying. I am actually not up to the ideas of his next two projects. The sound corny and the one that is suppesedly like ‘Back to the Future’ I am going to hate. DON”T MESS WITH THE ORIGINALS! Any way, I have read ‘The Life and Death of Charlie St.CLoud’ I read the book in a really short amount of time so I couldn’t dweel on it much, but I cna say it was amazing. SOme say it’s trash, but really it’s not. In a way it’s a mixture of many other stories but still it’s its own story and very unique.
I just want to say that I just turned 17-years-old and I AM willing to see Zac in more serious rolls. I felt that 17Again was a door opening for that. I beieve that Zac can do any thing he puts he’s mind to out there in Hollywood! Some of you talk about Lenardo,Jhonny Deep ect.
But to people my age and a little older, Zac Efron is our guy!
And we will and we do support him for the movies he makes and will make. THANK YOU:]
people who compare zac efron with taylor lautner are right and wrong- first of all taylor has never been attatched to disney or its machinations and has never never had a clear cut wholesome image that zac had to have in the hsm days- already taylor is a sex symbol at 18 – known for his muscles and his portrayal of jacob black- a macho male character- sho doesent sing and dance in the rain and so turn the male audience away- people assume men dont want anything to so with taylor but i see so many men getting his autograph- videos on youtube dedicated to taylor lautners perfet abs and how to get them- zacs loss is taylors gain- taylor can do action roles so easily and succeed wheras someone as zac wouldnt succeed taylor could similarly do a comedy role and succeed at that- taylor is an all rounder and has greater capabilities than zac-