Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: After a feverish day-long bidding battle, I’m hearing that Universal Pictures is closing a 7-figure deal for an untitled comedy that will have Seth Rogen and Zac Efron attached to star. Rogen and Evan Goldberg will produce through their Point Grey Pictures banner. I’m told that this was an incredible deal that capitalized on the R-rated successes of the summer, and that beyond the 7-figures for writers Andrew Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, Rogen will be paid $8 million with a separate low seven-figure producing fee.

Several studios bid on the pitch that will be written by Cohen and O’Brien, who, like Rogen and Goldberg, are Judd Apatow proteges. Cohen and O’Brien will be executive producers. The pitch will be an R-rated comedy that has the tone of Old School. Rogen plays a regular guy who lives near an alpha male fraternity house. Efron is a member of the fraternity, whose raucous behavior wreaks havoc on the other guy’s family life. The scribes hatched the idea and brought it to Goldberg and it was packaged with Efron and Rogen. The bidding came down to Universal and New Line. Uni made Bridesmaids and New Line made Horrible Bosses, both of which were big R-rated hits. CAA and Alchemy Entertainment repped Efron, and CAA repped the writers. UTA and Principal repped Rogen and UTA repped Goldberg.