Zac Efron + $24 million dollar opening = sure-fire sequel. Right? The tricky thing is that the movie in question is the old-guy-becomes-a-teenager comedy ‘17 Again,’ in which Efron plays a young version of Matthew Perry’s character. Where does a screenwriter go from there in a quest to move the story forward?
Efron’s co-star, Thomas Lennon (“Reno 911!”) has a couple ideas. “You turn it into 18-year-old Zac Efron, who’s maybe even a little bit hunkier and dreamer than 17-year-old Zac Efron,” he said in a recent interview with MTV News. “Although both of ‘em pretty much break the dreamy meter.”
“Oh my god, wouldn’t that be awesome!” he laughed. “I’m down for it! I have no problem doing ‘18 Again.’ Basically the same premise…. I ain’t picky.”
No matter that ‘18 Again’ has already been made into a movie, albeit one starring George Burns as a rich octogenarian who switches bodies with his teenage grandson. That was 21 years ago. And it didn’t star Zac Efron!
Lennon, for one, knows all about the appeal of the “High School Musical” star. “When I first met Zac Efron, I thought, ‘Wow, do I want to be in a movie with someone like from Menudo or one of the kids from the Partridge family?’” he joked. “I was a little bit nervous. I didn’t know what kind of dude he was. Then I met him. Turns out: nicest, funniest kid you’d ever want to meet. He’s also a great actor and a really great improviser, and we’ve subsequently become good friends.”
They had such great chemistry on set that they decided to get together for a Funny or Die video that has Lennon playing Efron’s pervy Uncle Hank and crashing Efron’s star-studded pool party. “As soon as you start doing something with Zac, all these completely crazy people come out of the woodwork,” said Lennon. “So it was really strange to be improvising with Nicole Ritchie and Benji Madden and Carmen Electra and Brody Jenner. The other weird thing about it was that most of them were really pretty funny. I was kind of surprised. It was all the stars of ‘Star’ magazine improvising.”
"17 Again"--give us more or let it die? What's your favorite of all the many body/age switch movies? "Big"? "Being John Malkovich"? "Freaky Friday"?
Comments