jeezbee

Zac signed up for a new movie, The Death and Life for Charlie St. Cloud, after he dropped out of Footloose back in March/April. The movie is a supernatural romantic drama based on Ben Sherwood’s novel of the same name and will be directed by Burr Steers and distributed by Universal in 2010.

The film recently started filming in Vancouver. Official shooting dates are from 31 July through 22 October 2009 (based on production lists from various Canadian guilds).

So far only a few cast members have been announced:

• Amanda Crew as Tess Caroll
• Charlie Tahan as Sam St. Cloud
• Kim Basinger as Charlie’s & Sam’s mother

Here is a summary of the book courtesy of Ben Sherwood (note: synopsis naturally contains spoilers):

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I’m sorry, I haven’t been updating in the last few weeks – nothing really major happened but a lot of small tidbits became available. I’ll start with a round up on HSM3 and will follow on the other two projects a bit later.

The most obvious news: filming started yesterday, 3 May 2008 in SLC. Disney has already started their marketing despite the fact that the cameras just started rolling. They’ve already released the first poster (left – big version in the gallery). We also got to see and hear the entire main cast (minus Lucas), director, writer and producers in a press conference on Friday, 2 May 2008 to announce the start of production. They didn’t give away much about the movie itself, most talk was about how excited everyone was to be back, blah blah. The best online video of the press conference can be found on Utah’s Fox site (Part one is here, part two you find in the sidebar of the same page). Their video is basically straight through without any edits or cuts.

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One of the owners of “The London Swing Cats” posted on the Swing Junction message board (on 1 April & 7 April 2008) that they are looking for dance extras for Me and Orson Welles to film on 11 April 2008. Based on this it seems likely that Zac is at least until then in the UK (no info is available if it might be even longer – nobody knows at the moment when Me and Orson Welles will wrap filming).

Obviously it doesn’t state if Zac will be there but considering that he is in almost all the scenes in the book I would assume he is. Based on this info, it looks like we will see Zac dancing two classic dances from the 1930’s. I’m looking forward to see that.

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The Croydon Guardian posted an article on Friday, 4 April 2008, that Me and Orson Welles was filming all day in the Crystal Palace Park.  Filming should wrap soon though.

Film makers find Crystal Palace Park to be the perfect setting
By Cara Lee

Crystal Palace Park was transformed into a bustling film set today, much to the excitement of the park’s users and nearby residents.

After speculation mounted about what was happening in the park, it was revealed the historic site was being used to shoot scenes for Me and Orson Welles, which stars A-listers Clare Danes, Ben Chapman and Zac Efron.

A spokesman for CinemaNX, the company making the film, confirmed filming was being carried out around the steps leading up to the site of the old Crystal Palace, which was bombarded with members of the crew and cast, including Zac Efron and Zoe Kazan who play the lead roles. A facade of New York’s Mercury Theatre was set up there for the scene.

He said the crew will only be at the site today.

The film, directed by Richard Linklater, is a coming-of-age romantic comedy set in the 1930s about a teenager, played by Zac Efron, who is cast in the Mercury Theatre production of Julius Caesar, directed by a young Orson Welles.

It is due to be released sometime next year.

The Isle of Man Film has published a page about “Me and Orson Welles” on their website. It reveals that the IoM filming will take place in the Gaiety Theatre from 24 February to 14 March 2008. That will at least partly include filming on the weekend – at least one of the extras casting calls was scheduled for a Sunday. Zac has also been seen leaving LA on Sunday – most likely for London to do pre-production stuff. After the IoM part of the shoot, they are supposed to move to the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire (close to London).

The website also has a longer synopsis of the movie:

New York, 1937: RICHARD SAMUELS (17) is bored with school and dreams of treading the boards on Broadway. After a chance encounter with a theatre company outside a derelict theatre, The Mercury, Richard soon finds himself inside chatting with Orson Welles, the Director of Broadway’s first Shakespearean production, Julius Caesar. Welles is a bullish, competitive character who is having an affair with the leading lady, MURIEL BRASSLER, despite his wife VIRGINIA’S pregnancy. Richard plays on Welles’ egotistical nature and manages to bluff his way into the role of Lucius; Welles swiftly couples him with the gorgeous production assistant SONJA JONES (20), to rehearse. […]

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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Two more magazines have picked up the casting and production news I’ve posted about earlier today. The short articles in Empire Online and This is North Scotland have some new extra info:

• Filming starts on 24 February 2008 on the Isle of Man
• Filming moves then to Pinewood Studios in London (which you can also read about on the website of Pinewood Studios)
• And then to New York

Here are the 3 articles..

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According to an article in the IoM Today from today, 30 January 2008, Claire Danes has joined the cast of “Me and Orson Welles”. Here is the article:

Zac Efron confirmed for Isle of Man film

IT’S been confirmed High School Musical heart-throb Zac Efron will star in a film to be made in the Island next month.
The news was first broken by iomtoday in mid-January but Isle of Man Film has today (Wednesday) officially announced Efron will spend close to a month filming Me and Orson Welles in the Isle of Man.

[…]

The Salt Lake Tribune had and interesting article about HSM3 on 15 December 2007 (only available to subscribers now). Here’s a summary of the interesting info:

• Filming will take place in Utah from 21 April – 13 June 2008
• One filming location will be again the East High School in Salt Lake City
• They will have 41 filming days
• They will get a $2 million incentive from the state of Utah for filming there

Here’s the article (thanks to M-Chel @ Fanforum):

Another encore for ‘High School Musical’

The teen heartthrobs of “High School Musical” will dance and sing their way back to Utah to film the third installment of the blockbuster Disney franchise, it was confirmed Friday.

Shooting begins April 21 and is expected to wrap June 13, according to documents filed with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development board (GOED). While the first two films premiered on the Disney Channel television network, the new movie, scheduled for release in the second half of 2008, will debut in movie theaters.

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