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‘17 Again’ round up

I’ve been not very good at updating the blog… I’ll try to improve. In that light, here’s a catch up on everything related to 17 Again. Not a lot has happened since my last posts, so this should bring the blog up-to-date at least for that movie.

First off, the release date has been pushed back from the initially rumored 15 August 2007. I’m glad it got postponed – the 15 August date was not good. Way to crowded for the film – it would have been crushed. While there is no official announcement, it seems that the release is currently targeted at 20 February 2009. I’m not thrilled with that date either (my preference would have been second half of April) but it’s still better than the August date. (more…)

More set visits for “Seventeen Again”

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last days. There hasn’t been anything major but there have been a lot of small things – amongst others there have been more articles and some videos from set visits which happened in the same week as the one from ComingSoon.net. Some have a bit more ‘real’ info, some are rather thin so you’ll find those at the end.

2 articles and a video from MTV:

Zac Efron Sheds Teen Image, Plays It Cool For ‘Seventeen Again’

The ‘High School Musical’ star adopts Matthew Perry’s attitude to play 40-year-old transported to his teens.

By Shawn Adler, 6 February 2008

If you’re like millions of young fans of “Hairspray” or the “High School Musical” franchise, you probably think Zac Efron is just about the epitome of cool.

Wait’ll you get a load of his dad, the 20-year-old megastar joked with MTV News from the set of his newest film, “Seventeen Again” (formerly called just “Seventeen”), in which he plays a middle-age man suddenly transported back to his teenage years.

“Everything you do, you have to kind of view it from your dad’s perspective,” Efron said, revealing how he got in the head of an adult for the role. “I tried to do a few things that I learned from my dad — things that he thinks are cool but are really dorky.

“That seems to be working pretty well,” he laughed.

It’s seemingly all laughs these days for Efron, now that he’s beginning to shed his teenage image for more grown-up films.

Playing the young Mike O’Donnell — who gets his wish for a chance to go back to high school and redo his life — is the perfect way for Efron to transition from tween heartthrob to adult thesp in flicks like “Me and Orson Welles.” This is especially true given that the character offers him a shot at growing up without the side-effects of actually, you know, growing up, Efron teased.

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More set visits from “Seventeen Again”

This week not only ComingSoon.net got to visit the “Seventeen Again” set but a whole bunch of other publications as well. Thursday was obviously teen magazine day with Seventeen, J-14, Twist, Tiger Beat, Teen Dream and Kathryn from Zefron.com. MSN also seemed to have somebody on there this week.

Articles from MSN, Tiger Beat and Kathryn have been posted. Most of them have only little tidbits about the movie. Here is a summary before I post the articles for reference:

• Filming was supposed to go another 5 days when Tiger Beat was there on Wednesday. If they film on the weekend, they could finish as early as Monday or more likely sometimes during the next week.
• There is a scene in a mansion full of all sorts of cool comic book toys and gadgets. In the scene, Michelle’s character is trying to kiss Zac, but she doesn’t realize that he is her dad in the body of a 17-year-old.
• There is a scene where Zac dances and he gets to wear 80′ clothes (I assume both happen in the flashback at the beginning of the movie)
• The renaming to “Seventeen Again” seems to be confirmed as well as the August release date.

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Set visit article about “17″ on Comingsoon.net

Comingsoon.net posted a fantastic article from a “17″ set visit today (31 January 2008). It contains info about the project and they talked to Adam Shankman, Jennifer Gibgot (both producers) and Zac.

Here is the article:

Set Visit: Zac Efron’s Seventeen Again

Plucked from the “High School Musical” group, Zac Efron has emerged as one of the biggest actors in Hollywood right now.

And it’s his work in Hairspray with Adam Shankman that he’s getting even a larger teen-icon status. That’s because before they were even done shooting that movie, Adam decided to develop another movie specifically for Zac – Seventeen Again.

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Plot summary & name change for “17″ to “Seventeen Again”?

There is now one more piece of evidence that Zac’s movie might change its name to “Seventeen Again”.

Comingsoon.net had a chat with Adam Shankman (who is producing the movie) about his upcoming project as director “Bedtime Stories” on the set of Zac’s movie. It seems that in the interview Zac’s film was referenced as “Seventeen Again”. A few websites (including the New York Times and comingsoon.net) have already updated their movie page with that name.

Also, comingsoon.net has a really nice and longish summary on their movie page:

*SPOILERS BEHIND THE CUT*

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Current “17″ casting summary (known status on 26 Jan 2008)

Status: 26 Jan 2008

Information about Thomas Lennon, Hunter Parrish, Margaret Cho & Jim Gaffigan courtesy of Meg @ Livejournal. Additionally, Zac has mentioned the Hunter Parrish casting in an extra interview during the HSM2 DVD launch and the casting of Thomas Lennon was mentioned in an article in Entertainment Weekly.

Tyler Steelman & Mario Cassem in “17″

IMDb has updated the casting section on “17″ and added Tyler Steelman to the cast as Ned @ 17.

It’s IMDb “casting information” so it’s not as reliable as a press release but I’m fairly sure it’s true. There is a part like that in the script (and the character has not been widely known). The casting sides list the character as Ed (who appears with the age of 17 back in 1986 and as 36 in 2008 which is then played by Thomas Lennon) but I’ve seen rumors that the character has been renamed Ned. Renaming happens often, so I don’t think that it is an indication that the casting info is fake.

From everything I know, the character has only a few lines and should be in the early part of the movie only.

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Leelanau Enterprise reported in an article about child actors that Mario Cassem appears with in the film “17“. He plays the role of an Indian boy, a smart-aleck who plays chess against Perry’s son (Efron) via Bluetooth, a wireless technology. This character didn’t even have casting sides, so I would expect him to have only a short scene and very few to none lines. 

Note: the article also contains a summary which very misleading at best but would be better characterized as partly wrong. Having said that, there is some spoilery info in that short summary which gives away a major trigger (spoiler) which is the base why certain things happen in the movie.

Release date for “17″ moved up to August?

According to an article at Variety dated 18 January 2008, New Line decided to move up the release date of Zac’s movie “17″ to August 2007.

New Line also decided last week to open the Zac Efron comedy “Seventeen Again,” which is currently shooting, in August.

Sterling Knight in “17″

From Variety (10 January 2008):

Sterling Knight

Sterling Knight has signed with 1 Management. Knight is currently lensing a lead role in Burr Steers’ “17,” alongside Zac Efron and Leslie Mann. He also recently wrapped a lead role in the Disney Channel pilot “Sketchpad” and has a recurring role on TNT’s “The Closer.”

Burr Steers directs “17″

From the Hollywoodreporter (10 September 2007):

Steers ‘17′ again for New Line

TORONTO — Burr Steers is on board to direct “17,” a teen comedy from New Line Cinema set to star Zac Efron. Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot, who worked with Efron on “Hairspray,” are producing via their Offspring Entertainment shingle.

The script, written by Jason Filardi, concerns a grown man who finds himself as a 17-year-old trying to navigate high school. The studio picked up the project as a pitch this past winter.

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