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Zac Efron has decided that he doesn’t want to be typecast as “that cute tween heartthrob who sings and dances,” and has dropped out of the remake of Footloose, which has been in the works since last July. The budget was $20 million and was supposed to start filming this spring, but he’s left the movie in the lurch. Zac’s whole persona is based on musicals. He made his start in one (the High School Musical franchise), solidified his career in a musical (Hairspray), and is dating a girl who fancies herself a singer (Vanessa Hudgens). He starred in Me and Orson Wells with Claire Danes (not a musical), and it was supposed to come out last year, but for some reason hasn’t been released yet – it’s probably just that bad.
Efron told the studio last week that he did not want to do another musical at this point in his career, according to a senior member of the production team.
The team member told TheWrap that Efron had script approval on the movie and used a rewrite on the screenplay as the loophole to get out of his contract: “People had been working on this project since last July — we were all shocked.”
A Paramount spokesman could not immediately be reached for confirmation.
Despite occasional serious roles in film and television series such as “NCIS” and “CSI: Miami,” Efron has earned superstar status by singing and dancing as Troy Bolton in the HSM series, the first two for television, the third a wide-release feature. He also played a singing, dancing teen in the 2007 musical “Hairspray,’’ a remake of the 1988 John Waters’ film, which became a Broadway musical.
And earlier this month, along with his “HSM” co-star and occasional girl friend, Vanessa Hudgens, he joined Hugh Jackson in a song and dance number during the Academy Award presentations.
Seems enough of that is enough for the young actor.
Efron’s effort to play a more serious role was slated to get a big boost last year with the release of “Me and Orson Welles,” a drama with Claire Danes, directed by Richard Linklater, in which he plays a Broadway actor who has a chance meeting with Welles in 1937. The film, scheduled for 2008, has not yet been released.
The new “Footloose,” a remake of the 1984 Kevin Bacon starrer, was to be directed by Kenny Ortega, who directed all three “High School Musicals” and was slated to begin shooting this spring in Atlanta, with a targeted release date in 2010. The budget was well over $20 million.
[From The Wrap]
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, Zac Efron. I understand not wanting to be typecast, but he’s just not a very good as an actor. Sure, he’s charming and pretty cute, but that’s where the star potential stops. On the other hand, he can sing and dance. Maybe the next movie he chooses shouldn’t be a musical; but it’s not good form to leave a movie because it doesn’t fit into his life plan. If there was one phrase I would not normally use to describe Zac, it would be “diva.” But with this move, he’s definitely proving himself to be one.
Here’s Zac Efron at the premiere of ’17 Again’ in Sydney on March 11th. Images thanks to WENN .
Written by SamHill
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12 Responses to “Zac Efron doesn’t want to be typecast as a song-and-dance man”
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*snort* too late
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Actually, since he’s male, the correct term is “divo”.
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Oh well, at least he can console himself sound in the knowledge that he’s leaving the party with Miss Hudgens!
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Then Twinkle-toes needs to quit making HSM movies- duhhhh.
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No song and dance man? Eh, his personality is deplorable (unbelievably arrogant), but throwing that aside…
Judging by the “17 Again” trailers, I think Zac may have a path in comedic movies. He was funny in the trailers, and he was kinda funny in “Hairspray.”
Although if he ends up in the rumored movie about the Kent State shootings, I will hit the roof.
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i’ve never seen anything this twink does~and never will. I do still find him annoying in every interview.
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Didn’t even read the article – the heading alone made me LOL.
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Cool – maybe now he can disappear and men can look like men instead of pretty boys.
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he shouldn’t be making these kind of decisions. it is not like he’s matt damon or brad pitt. right now that’s his niche, and he’s best to keep at that, rake in the money, and take serious acting classes then he can afford to pick and choose his films. i think he’ll crash and burn pretty soon. he also could take a lesson from daniel radcliffe who will always be known as harry potter, but he’s been slowly building up a different niche while continuing to play harry potter. so yeah, zac made a boo-boo here. really bad business decision dropping out of a movie that was due to start filiming ina couple months. he’ll soon have a label, and not the one he wants, but the one of “ditches movies.”
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Aw, man. Okay, as the only person looking forward to him being in the Footloose remake, I can admit I’m disapponted.
But it does make a certain sense given that after HSM and Hairspray, that would make three singing and dancing films.
I thought he was funny in Hairspray and had some potential beyond the musical aspect. Nobody takes actors seriously when they try to break out of their pigeonhole. Best of luck to him.
Not sure how wanting to broaden his horizons makes him a divo, though. He can’t do the singing and dancing thing for too much longer anyway so it’s a good idea to try to break away sooner rather than later. If it doesn’t work with the movie-going public – it’s still better to find out sooner rather than later.
The only annoying thing is if people lose jobs because of his decision. Hopefully they can pick up another star or he can be convinced to change his mind if that’s the case.
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if Zac Efron plays his cards right, he will be one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood
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I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!
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