Paramount rewards Zac Efron with Footloose
Published on Oct 29th, 2008
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Written by Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com
After High School Musical 3: Senior Year beat Saw by a $12 million margin this weekend and claimed the #1 spot at the box office, Paramount is looking to fast-track a long-talked-about remake of Footloose starring Zac Efron.
Paramount has sweetened the deal for the newly bankable Efron (who already scored $3 million to return to the High School Musical franchise).  According to Variety:
Unlike “HSM3,” “Footloose” will aim for an older teen and adult demo. Efron is just about set in a deal that will pay him a mid-seven-figure salary and give him script approval.
Between now and when Footloose comes out, Efron has 17 Again – a Big-in-reverse big studio comedy in which he stars as the seventeen-year-old version of Matthew Perry — coming out, which should strengthen his appeal beyond his core fanbase of squealing fourteen-year-olds.
Also onboard Footloose is Efron’s HSM director, Kenny Ortega.  The director of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Peter Sollett, has been hired to rewrite a previously written script by Jon Hartmere.  Paramount plans to start production by spring 2009, making spring 2010 a likely season for release.
For the record, of the six HSMÂ stars, Efron is now the big breakout star, while Lucas Grabeel is showing early promise as a character actor (he has a small role in the upcoming Sean Penn drama Milk). Â Vanessa Hudgeons is still dating Efron, until he gets too famous and dumps her. Â The other three are mostly still doing Disney channel stuff, slowly building up enough resentment until they snap and write HSMÂ tell-alls ten years from now to make money when their homes foreclose.
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