jeezbee

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’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. […]

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.

A girl on Zefron.com has been an extra on the set of Me and Orson Welles on the 7th and 9th of March and posted on 10 March 2008 about her experience.

She was part of the theatre audience and talked about the filming of the Richard (Zac) and Orson (Welles) stage scene where Zac’s character plays the ukulele and sings as well as the curtain call and that they shot a lot of audience reaction shots.

Here is a composition of her posts:

I spent the 7th and 9th March on set at the Gaiety Theatre in the Isle of Man as an extra, a member of the theatre audience watching the 1937 performance of Julius Ceasar at the Mercury Theatre. Here’s a summary of what we got up to.

[…]

There are two more cast members for Me and Orson Welles.

First, according to the production database at the Hollywoodreporter, Zoe Kazan is also member of the cast. This looks like a promising casting – while not well known she has been staring in several movies with fantastic casts.

I’m wondering what she will play. I always thought that Imogen Poots would play Gretta but now I’m not so sure anymore. Considering that Zoe lives in NYC, I could imagine that she plays Gretta and Imogen has a part in the theatre/Orson Welles part of the movie. Or perhaps we get to see Caroline after all. We’ll see.

Additionally, Matthew Cottle has been seen on set dressed in period clothes so I guess it’s save to assume that he’ll be in there as well; his role is not known yet either.

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.

[…]

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.

[…]

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.

[…]