jeezbee

Radio Disney released the first song last night. It’s called “Now or Never” and it’s the opening number which is played during a basketball game between the Wildcats and another High School. Listen to it here:

ET Online also has a preview for the trailer/movie:

The full trailer and a 5-minute “First Look” from the Disney Channel will follow in the next days. They didn’t wait long to kickstart the promotion.

And finally, there is one brief video from the MTV Movie blog, where Ashley talks about her big musical number in HSM3. […]

Disney published a press release about the start of their promotional campaign with a “First Look” thingie on the Disney Channel hosted by Zac and Vanessa and the trailer as well as the launch of the online campaign on Disney.com.

Well get to see some footage as well as the opening song “Now or Never” during that 5 minute “First Look” as well as a trailer which will be show for the first time on 13 July on the DC. The song debuts even earlier (11 July) on Radio Disney. The online launch will kick off on Disney.com on 14 July at 12:01 a.m. ET.

Here is the full press release: […]

USA Today has a new article about HSM3 in today’s edition (7 July 2008). Additionally, a second report with Corbin Blue also has a few tidbits.

Here’s what we learn in the article – WARNING Spoilers:

• 45-day shooting schedule; it might have been tight and long days but they succeeded
• Production values went up but are still in line with the previous look-and-feel of high school
• Budget is bigger for HSM3 compared to the previous two (the article say they don’t know how much; IMDb says it’s $33 mil which seems realistic)
• The finale is a big dance-and-song number on the football field – it’s the graduation scene
• The movie includes a over-the-top number for Sharpay. It’s a dream sequence, in which she envisions herself and twin brother Ryan (Grabeel) as superstars. The song for it is I Want It All. In that number Troy plays a crazed fan at a movie premiere for Sharpay and is dressed in a T-shirt with Sharpay’s image silk-screened on the front and has a big red heart tattoo on his bicep with an “SE” (for Sharpay Evans) in its center. The number has 4 minutes screentime and took 3 days to shoot.
• Troy and Chad have a big musical number The Boys Are Back. The number is in the junkyard where their characters spent a lot of their childhood pretending to be pirates and ninjas. It’s a whole fantasy about them being kids again. For the flashback scenes, child actors were cast to play young Chad and Troy — with the junior Chad donning a wig resembling Bleu’s trademark locks.
• Corbin’s dad will also play Chad’s dad in HSM3

And here is the full article: […]

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.

[…]

Disney released a press release today (24 March 2008), announcing the addition of 3 new characters to High School Musical 3: Senior Year. New are

• Matt Prokop as Jimmy “The Rocket” Soto, a Troy wanna-be
• Justin Martin as Donny Fox, looks up to Chad
• Jemma McKenzie-Brown as Tiara, a mini-Sharpay-in-training

Here is the full press release:
[…]

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.

[…]

Disney issued finally a press release on 14 January 2008 announcing HSM3, the fact that all the cast will return (of course including Zac) and the release date, 24 October 2008.

From the Business Wire:

Disney’s “High School Musical” Stars Head to the Big Screen: Walt Disney Pictures Presents “High School Musical 3: Senior Year”

Kenny Ortega Set to Direct Feature Film Beginning in Spring 2008

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–All principal cast members from Disney’s “High School Musical” – Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman – will be reunited on the big screen for Walt Disney Pictures’ upcoming feature film, “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” it was announced today by Oren Aviv, president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Production.

[…]