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. We got a preview clip from AOL/Movieline with behind the scenes footage and a few seconds of film a while ago. You can watch it here:
[quicktime width=”480″ height=”288″]http://pdl.stream.aol.com/newline/gl/newline/V/2008/17again/17Again_EarlyBuzz_Med_dl.mov[/quicktime]
I have also screencaps of the clip in the gallery here.
I’ve also made several other long due updates to the gallery with the various paparazzi on set pics we got from filming here. New Line also released a few promotion stills which can be found here.
And finally, there is one more article which comes out of the initial group of journalists who were there for a set visit (the teeny bopper group) from TeenHollywood. It has really nothing new but it seems it’s more of an complete report what happened on set versus an article. It’s basically the long version of a set report containing all the other articles. Just for completeness sake here’s the entire thing:
On the Beach with Zac and Michelle
Mar 24, 2008 – Lynn Barker
20-year-old Zac Efron will turn Seventeen Again in his new dramady film as he goes back to high school. Zac plays a star athlete with great college potential (uh, can we say “High School Musical”?) but he gives it all up to marry his high school sweetheart. Jump forward 25 years and he’s an adult (played by Matthew Perry of “Friends”) and his marriage and career have fallen apart. His own teen kids don’t have real relationships with him. Bummed, he goes back to his old school and, through some magic that we won’t disclose here, becomes his 17-year-old self again! You can imagine the can of worms this opens up! Playing his daughter is Michelle Trachtenberg of “Buffy” fame.
TeenHollywood trekked out to the Santa Monica pier and Zuma Beach earlier this year to watch a party-on-the-beach-around-the-campfire scene being shot. Whoops! There’s sand in our eyes and a freezing, 40 mph wind blowing!! So, no shoot tonite but Michelle and Zac were kind enough to stick around and chat with us briefly anyway in Michelle’s trailer on set. We knock on the door. Let’s set the scene; Michelle answers wearing her own clothes; jeans, gray boots, brown leather jacket, t-shirt, gold necklace and a long Burberry wool scarf against the wind. She invites us in and is an amazing hostess. Zac will join us shortly….
Michelle: [looking around] Oh my gosh, it’s dark in here. I’ll turn on the lights.. want it warm or cold? Heat on, off? On? [opening fridge]. Would you like some water, diet Coke or [leaning in] some vinegar?
TeenHollywood: [we laugh] Uh, no thanks. We’re fine. [we go sit on her couch]. So, tell us about your character in Seventeen Again.
Michelle: She’s pretty cool. You can’t see it right now but I usually have bright green extensions in or like black and blonde extensions in or burgundy ones. She’s a really fun girl. Her name is Maggie. She’s sort of your typical 17-year-old girl, kind of rebelling against her parents so she’s being inspired by her boyfriend who is a rebel with a tattoo and she’s just sort of angry at her parents, doesn’t understand why they’re getting divorced and trying to go through her everyday life not caring. Your typical 17-year-old essentially.
TeenHollywood: How was your 17th year?
Michelle: I was not at all like that. It’s funny because even though Maggie rebels with her clothes, she’s much more soft-spoken. I was definitely a lot more outgoing and crazy. I was also on my last year of “Buffy”. I think we wrapped “Buffy” when I was 17 and about a week later I was on my way to film Eurotrip so it was a little different when I was 17. I definitely was not a party girl, nothing crazy. I sat home and read books and watched “Law and Order” marathons [laughter]. I still do that. It’s so lame!
At this point, Zac walks in and joins us. He’s looking very cute in a navy blue knit cap, white t-shirt, navy pants, navy long-sleeved shirt and super white Converse tennis shoes.
Zac: What’s up? Oh my gosh, I already know you.
TeenHollywood: Yep, we’ve interviewed you a few times.
Michelle: Grab a chair. I was talking about what I was like when I was 17, boring.
TeenHollywood: Talk about your character, Zac.
Zac: My character Mike O’Donnell, I guess I’m playing young Matthew Perry.
Michelle: There’s two different people playing the same person. That’s so weird.
Zac: It’s fun. It’s weird. It’s almost like a split personality.
TeenHollywood: How do you play another version of the same guy? Did you study Matthew or something?
Zac: Yeah, a little bit. He’s got a few mannerisms, a lot of small things that I tried to incorporate. I try not to do too much of it. Only at very few select moments will you see it. I think people are different as they grow older. What I wanted to play a lot with this character is watching his youth come out again, when he comes back to being seventeen. I didn’t want to be the exact same person.
TeenHollywood: What were you like at 17?
Zac: I was a very regular 17-year-old. I don’t know any other way to put it. I wasn’t fighting crime or anything.
Michelle: You weren’t? I was. Vampires and stuff [we laugh].
TeenHollywood: What made you want to do this film? What sparked your interest?
Michelle: It was working with me.
Zac: Yeah, working with Michelle but also, Adam [Shankman, the film’s producer] mentioned the overall concept to me when we were doing Hairspray in Canada. I just kinda said ‘yeah. It sounds great’. Little did I know it would actually turn into a script and become a full production. It was amazing to watch something come to fruition.
TeenHollywood: How weird is it for you to play father and daughter? You’re about the same age. How do you relate to each other on the set?
Michelle: I call him dad. ‘Good morning, dad’. [Zac looks at her like ‘yeah, sure you do’.]
TeenHollywood: But, your character Maggie doesn’t know he’s your dad made young.
Michelle: No, I don’t. That would be really weird!
TeenHollywood: She wouldn’t believe it anyway, right?
Michelle: Yeah, I wouldn’t at all. We sort of lucked out with a great cast of comedy people, working with Leslie Mann and Tom Lennon is sort of like a mini-little dream come true because you watch these actors and admire them and all their comedic abilities and I just kind of want to sit and look at them and see what they’re going to do. Leslie has this amazing intonation in her speech where you’re reading this line and you’re like ‘Eh, okay, could be funny’ then you hear her say it and think ‘oh, that’s funnier’.
Zac: Yeah.
TeenHollywood: Zac would you go back to being 17 in high school again if you could or are you glad those days are behind you?
Zac: I don’t know.
Michelle: I wouldn’t.
Zac: It seems, having just got out of there, I don’t know if I’m ready to go back. There’s already a few things that I know I’d do differently but that is, in no way, gonna make me go back and re-live it.
TeenHollywood: You’re going to have to revisit your senior year in the next “High School Musical” movie.
Zac: Oh, yeah. I have to do that all over again. “High School Musical 3”, that I’m looking forward to. It’s great. We’re gonna start in a few months.
TeenHollywood: April I hear. That’s what Corbin said anyway.
Zac: Is that what you hear? Yeah, other than that, I can’t talk too much about it. But, I’m really looking forward to it, getting back to work on it.
TeenHollywood: Senior Prom huh?
Zac: Yeah.
TeenHollywood: Did you guys go to your Senior Prom?
Michelle: I didn’t. I was in Prague… Prague Prom.
Zac: I didn’t go to my own Senior Prom. I went to some other people’s Senior Proms so I’ve done it before.
TeenHollywood: There’s no Prom in this movie?
Zac: No.
Michelle: I went to Prom as a Junior, not cuz I was cool or anything cuz I wasn’t but I was friends with the Seniors and they were like ‘you wanna come?’ ‘I have nothing else to do, sure’.
TeenHollywood: What are your favorite scenes in this movie so far?
Zac: It’s crazy. There’s a lot of random stuff in this movie. [looking at her] We have a great scene. I like our scene. That was fun.
Michelle: The sad one?
Zac: Yeah. I just get to console my daughter.
Michelle: He’s very paternal and caring.
Zac: It’s one of the few scenes where I really be a dad for a minute.
Somebody comes in and tells Michelle we can’t shoot the scene because of the wind and they need her on another set.
Michelle: No way!
Zac: [to us] So you don’t have to be out in the cold.
Michelle: So we’re going to the house? Can’t we finish this up?
TeenHollywood: What was the scene you were supposed to shoot tonight?
Zac: We were supposed to shoot a bonfire party.
Michelle: Now we’re gonna…. Just not [she laughs].
TeenHollywood: We thought we were going to be watching some guy catch his leg on fire at the campfire.
Zac: See, stuff like that keeps happening. One of us catches on fire.
Michelle: I felt really bad because the other night I had to slap Zac and that was really hard for me to do. There were like three takes and he was such a trooper. His face was burning red and I was like ‘I’m sorry’. He was like [macho boy voice] ‘just do it. Comeon!’ He was so funny.
Zac: The thing about slaps on camera is there are so many ways to do it wrong.
Michelle: But, literally, each girl is like [she very lightly touches his face in a wimp slap].
Zac: We just really did the slaps. That’s the best way to do it.
TeenHollywood: Have you been mobbed by fans on the set?
Zac: Sets aren’t the fun place you think they would be. It’s kind of a bunch of ominous, big hairy grips running around with big trucks.
Michelle: It’s its own little world.
TeenHollywood: So no fans have found you?
Zac: No. It also doesn’t look like a really fun place. There’s no giant ‘hey, let’s have fun’ signs.
TeenHollywood: Who is the biggest prankster on set?
Michelle: It’s me. I’m probably the worst.
Zac: What did you do?
Michelle: I make fun of everyone just for laughs.
Zac: That’s gonna be a great quote. I can just see that in print. ‘I make fun of everyone’.
Michelle: No. I honestly think that because I didn’t have the same high school experience I’ve sort of just been really odd about the fact that this entire cast really loves each other and we all give each other such fun stuff that we pick on each other and I’ve tried to steal his cool clothes and that’s about it.
TeenHollywood: Do you like the wardrobe for this movie?
Michelle: I love my wardrobe, yeah. It’s pretty neat. Actually, [what I’m wearing] is almost exactly the same but she wouldn’t wear a leather jacket. It would be a big plaid hoodie with angry metal signs.
Zac: There’s actually a scene in the movie where we make a point of getting the right clothes to go back to high school. Tom Lennon pulls out his black American Express card and says ‘we’re goin’ shoppin’.
TeenHollywood: Do you guys have retro-music in the movie?
Zac: I don’t know what the soundtrack is yet. But I’m not gonna give away the big song.
TeenHollywood: What’s the biggest fashion mistake you made in high school?
Zac: I used to not even care. I’d literally wear pajamas to school.
Michelle: I wore a uniform to school and I would rebel so hard against the uniform. I’d wear like striped socks and platform shoes and tons and tons of necklaces. [to Zac] Remember those gooey bracelets that were all rubbery?
Zac: Yeah.
Michelle: And my cool jacket with buttons on it.
The production assistant-types start motioning to Michelle and Zac that they’ve got to move on to another location.
Zac: Listen, I’m really sorry about this shoot. It sucks that we can’t do it. I’m sure we’ll meet again soon.
TeenHollywood: Yeah. We’ll keep stalking you!
6 July 2008
17 Again