From a musical high school honey to one of media’s biggest nuisances, two teen heartthrobs are soon to make some unprecedented big screen appearances. While these talented headliners’ new acting opportunities are hardly haphazard, they are out of character career moves for both of the typecasted Romeos.After frequenting Disney’s youthful domain for so long, “High School Musical” star Zac Efron, 23, will finally venture into the R-rated realm in a frat film with Seth Rogan. In a similarly severe and unwonted transition, Billboard chart-topper Chris Brown,22 will star in a romantic comedy next year. With one giving his long kid film history the boot, and the other highlighting the on-screen hilarity in love after a hardly comedic domestic dispute, any thing goes in Hollywood these days.
With the premise behind his most mature project pitched and in the works, fans will gear up to watch Zac Effron ascent to manhood aside co-star Seth Rogan. The nameless, hard R movie-in-the-making will take on an Old School tone in a collegiate setting, and will tell the story of Rogen’s troublesome run-ins with the nearby fraternity house which Effron inhabits. While the age appropriate role may be refreshing for Zac, who’s to say that his infantile fan base of locker-slamming middle schoolers will even be allowed to enter the theatre to support the edgy new Effron?
Equally ironic in the motion picture mayhem is Chris Brown’s rumored role in the knee-slapping romance, “Think Like A Man”. The film will be an adaptation of Steve Harvey’s 2009 nonfiction book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man”. Co-executive produced by the hysterical Mr. Harvey himself, the plot portrays a relationship expert whose own personal life is in shambles. While Brown is best known as brilliant R & B lyricist and daring dancer, “Think Like A Man” won’t be his first cinematic venture; he’s also known for notable roles in “Stomp The Yard” and “Takers”. This will be the first time, however, that Chris will enter such a lovey yet laughable genre since he was charged with felony assault for beating then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. Starring Gabrielle Union and slated for a 2012 release on Rainforest Films, we’re standing by to see how the side-splitter will rub resentful audiences who think its leading mean should be slogged.
In both cases, we’d love nothing more than to be the proud parent watching one adorable amateur transcend his preteen patronage, and a former media-constructed monster love charmingly and tenderly all the way to the box office.