SOME FOUR years ago, teen crooner Zac Efron got his big break on the first ?High School Musical? production. As the TV movie?s young male lead, he exuded boy-next-door vitality and appeal, while delighting viewers with his singing, dancing and acting skills, which were impressively well-honed for someone his age.
After the next two ?HSM? productions similarly clicked with viewers, however, Efron had a key decision to make: Would he simply try to stretch his teen star appeal for as many more years as he could, or would he opt to be more proactive and launch a new phase in his career?
Responding to that challenge, Efron hedged a bit and played an ?also starring? role in another film musical, ?Hairspray.? The production was similarly successful, but did little to indicate a new career move on Efron?s part.
Currently, the young actor?s latest starrer is showing in town??17 Again,? in which he plays the teen ?retrograde? persona of a middle-aged man who magically reverts back to his high school years.
At first blush, it would appear that the actor is still loath to give up the teen persona that made him a star. In the light of the fact that Efron is now 21 years old, that?s not a good move to make?or more appropriately, not make. After all, stars have to grow up (as do their fans), and if they refuse to face up to the relentless and unstoppable passage of time, they?ll end up as the pathetic and even visible detritus of pop history.
Happily, however, Efron?s performance in ?17 Again? turns out to be not as juvenile as originally thought. This is due to the fact that he plays not only a teenager, but also the adult sensibility and inner voice of the film?s older protagonist.
Even more tellingly, Efron announces that he?s ready for adult roles by coming up with a magazine pictorial that shows him as a rough, tough hombre in mud-stained clothes, smooching with a nearly nude model.
The pictorial showcases a new Zac Efron?decidedly macho, hot to trot?and daring producers to cast him in rough-and-tumble actioners or adult romances. No more boy next door, Efron?s the man and he?s ready to howl.
We?ll know soon enough if producers will warm up to the new Zac Efron. But, win or lose, the young actor didn?t really have any other option, if he wanted his career to soar instead of fizzle out as his teen persona started to overstay its welcome. Smart guy. Now, if only his reel and real-life squeeze, Vanessa Hudgens, also adjusts her career thrust to make sure that she, too, discovers that there?s life after ?High School Musical!?
Other new talents
Indian actresses are now ?graduating? to international movies. Led by ?Slumdog Millionaire?s? Freida Pinto, they enchant viewers all over the world with their dusky allure and talent. Pinto has become so popular after her ?Slumdog? debut that she?s been snapped up by no less than Woody Allen to join the stellar cast of his next movie. The offer was impossible to refuse, Pinto shares, because the film also stars some ?to die for? leads?Antonio Banderas, Naomi Watts and Anthony Hopkins!
Another Indian beauty who?s ?going international? is Aishwarya Rai, who?s playing a big role in ?Pink Panther 2.? Rai plays Sonia, the newest member of the movie?s dream team of top detectives. She?s been added to the group, because she?s an expert on the life of the master thief known only as The Tornado, the number one suspect in the high-stakes theft that Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) and his colleagues have been charged to foil.
?Up? opens Cannes festival
Disney/Pixar?s animated feature, ?Up,? will premiere in Digital 3D as the opening film at the Cannes film festival on May 13. Directed by Pete Docter (?Monsters, Inc.?), ?Up? is a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies off to the wilds of South America.
But, he discovers to his dismay that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: An overly optimistic nine-year-old wilderness explorer named Russell!
