AG’s Zac Efron makes all the right moves

January 27, 2010 11:34 pm

Arroyo Grande native-turned-Hollywood-star Zac Efron is ready for his Hollywood close-up with a pair of new movie projects, designed to shake up his Disney-fied teen idol image. [Deadline Hollywood]

Efron has just inked a deal with Universal Pictures to star in a spy thriller, “Fire,” adapted from a graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis. Efron plays a college student recruited by the CIA, only to discover he’s in a program that creates expendable agents.

The young actor also has a deal to star in a movie for Warner Bros. that’s being compared to “Back to the Future.” This untitled project is set to be directed by Nick Stoller, best known for the romantic comedy, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

One veteran Hollywood reporter calls the two announced film projects as, “Efron’s quest to be taken seriously, and to shed the teen heartthrob image thrust upon him after the “High School Musical” films.”

We’ll see.