Zac Efron Ready for Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

By Kevin Coll • March 25, 2009 • 3 Comments

Yesterday we posted about Zac Efron leaving Footloose and now we know what he left Paramount for.

Turns out Mr. Efron is truly tired of musicals and teen beat films the cater to 13-16 girls who still love the Disney Channel. Efron is probably a guy who is a wanted commodity around town and while a Footloose film would be fine and dandy for the up and coming star – he and his agent(s) probably think he needs to begin getting into more mature roles. Well that’s exactly what the young star is doing.

Efron is re-teaming with his 17 Again director for a film titled, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud. The film is based off a book written by former Good Morning America, Executive Producer, Ben Sherwood. The news comes from Variety, who says the film revolves around a “caretaker at a cemetery who manages to have weekly meetings with a younger brother whose accidental death he feels was his fault.”

Marc Platt is producing, and while Efron’s deal is still being negotiated, Steers is set and has already begun polishing a script originally written by Craig Pearce, with James Schamus and Lewis Colick also turning in drafts. Production will begin in July. The Efron-Steers collaboration “17 Again” will be released by New Line/Warner Bros. on April 17.”

The movie sounds like a very mature role for Efron who will most likely play the title character of Charlie St. Cloud who must learn to let go of his brother Sam who’s death he feels guilty over. The story is one that does not deal as much with whether one’s life was important and what mark a person left behind. Instead, Charlie’s story focuses on how one lets go of one’s loved ones, as well as learning how to move on. The film also focuses on the relationship Charlie has with a young woman named Tess Carroll who is also going through the same issue.

The story is not only a heartwarming one but one that is much different than Efron’s filmogrpahy at this point and that is probably his thinking as well. He has a chance to show some range which will open up different projects for him in the future – I still think Johnny Quest is his role for the taking. I will definitely see this movie also since I have read portions of the book and think it is a great story.

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