While Zac Efron's post-"High School Musical" career choices haven't been spot on (we hope we never see Hip Hop Efron again), you can't fault him in his desire to change up expectations. And frankly, if his name is helping movies by Lee Daniels ("The Paperboy") and Ramin Bahrani ("At Any Price") get made, who are we to argue with that? And now he's made another curveball choice, which could see him working with two legends.
Efron, along with Harrison Ford, is in negotiations to join Rob Reiner's "Cape Fear"-esque "You Belong To Me." First announced this summer, the project is a return to the thriller genre for Reiner, with a story that follows a psychiatrist (Ford) who is reeling after one of his female patients commits suicide. The doctor winds up becoming close with her brother James (Efron), but things take a turn for the sinister when the latter begins seducing the psychiatrist's wife and daughter.
It actually sounds like a pretty nifty, old-school little potboiler, and if Reiner can get the tone right, and the performers put in some good turns, this could be something special. But then again, Reiner has fallen far from this glory days, with his recent efforts like "Flipped," "The Bucket List" and "The Magic Of Belle Isle" showing him to be hardly a shadow of his former self. But perhaps "You Belong To Me" will be the gig and material to turn that around. Production is slated to start in March. [The Wrap]
