Sometimes you just can’t tell. Zac Efron seemed like such a nice boy in the High School Musical films, but now it turns out he’s a money launderer and drug smuggler! Well, he will be in a new film anyway. Efron, who’s keen to show he’s a proper grown up actor now, is attached to star in and produce a remake of Snabba cash, a hot Swedish property that was the subject of a heavy Hollywood bidding war and has just found a home at Warner Bros.
According the THR, ‘Snabba is based on a novel by Jens Lapidus and was a major hit in its home country this year. The thriller follows three interconnected storylines involving drugs and organised crime, with the main character a young man (played in the original by Joel Kinnaman, but with Efron in the remake) who hopes to strike it rich quickly by becoming a runner for a coke dealer.’
Apparently the desire to remake the film was so strong that Universal, Summit, Paramount, Fox, the Weinstein Co., Mandate and Warners all submitted bids for the rights, with the latter securing them on behalf of Efron’s new production company. Things are likely to move forward quickly, because the deal stipulates that if the studio sits on the rights for too long, they’ll revert back to the producers of the Swedish original.
I’m all for Efron making the transition to adult movies, but I’m just hoping he doesn’t go the Leo DiCaprio route (which he might do, as he seems to see the Titanic star as a sort of role model), who became very tedious after his breakout roles, rejecting the sort of parts that made him a star, and only coming out of his self-serious slump in the last few years with some more commericial projects. Hopefully though, if Snabba Cash is as exciting a prospect as Hollywood seem to think it is, Efron can avoid that.