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Zac Efron will star in "Me and Orson Welles," an adaptation of the
period coming-of-age novel by Robert Kaplow that Richard Linklater
will direct.

Set in 1937, the story centers on a high school student (Efron)
who, while strolling the streets of New York, happens upon the
yet-to-open Mercury Theatre and is noticed by its mercurial
founder, Orson Welles. The man lands a bit part in "Julius Caesar,"
the production that catapulted Welles to the top, and spends the
next week learning about life and love.

Newcomer Christian McKay will play Welles. Ben Chaplin ("Water
Horse: The Legend of the Deep") has been cast as English film and
stage actor George Coulouris.

The script was written by Holly Gent Palmo, who was a production
coordinator on Linklater’s "Dazed and Confused," and Vince Palmo,
who was first assistant director on several of the helmer’s films.

Anne Carli, who worked on Linklater’s "Fast Food Nation," is a
producer on the project, which is independently financed.

With "Welles," Efron continues to show that he is more than a
one-trick pony by rounding out his acting curriculum vitae beyond
his "High School Musical" identity. The actor will return to
shooting the New Line comedy "Seventeen" after he recovers from his
appendectomy.

Efron then will shoot "Welles," a more mature piece of work, in
mid-February and March in such locales as New York, London and the
Isle of Man, whose Gaiety Theatre is being booked for the
production. He then returns to the franchise that launched him to
fame, filming Disney’s "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" in
mid-April.

Efron is repped by CAA, manager Jason Barrett of Alchemy
Entertainment and attorney Patti Felker.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Current Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.