Zac Efron Has Been Pinned For The Next Stephen King Film, So Get Ready For Hot Horror Daddy

zac efron

Zac Efron is set to continue sharpening his more-adult acting chops now that he’s been pinned for the reboot of Firestarter, an adaptation of the 1980 Stephen King sci-fi horror novel.

As reported by Collider, the announcement of Efron signing on for the film is the first cast announcement since Blumhouse production team (and the minds behind the Paranormal Activity films) Jason Blum and Akiva Goldsman announced the new adaptation back in 2017.

The original 1984 film – which featured 8-year-old Drew Barrymore in the lead role – follows Charlie, a young girl with pyrokinesis, after her parents were involved in experiments during their college years. Of course, a kid who can use their mind to start fires tips off a suss-sounding secret Government department what wants to take her away to conduct tests and use her powers as a weapon.

Though it’s not confirmed, it has been assumed that Zac will take on the role of Charlie’s father Andrew McGee, originally played by David Keith (Hawaii Five-0), who also has the ability to control minds after the experiments in his college years.

Look, hopefully that’s the case, because I’m truly not emotionally ready to see Zac Efron in a stone-cold Stephen King villain role. Not yet. Maybe someday I’ll be okay with him going Full Dark Mode but not now that he’s basically adopting himself into Australia.

Zac’s signing on to the sci-fi film follows his last role as the charismatic killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. That role had Zac exploring the darker side of his acting tools, proving that he’s much more than his High School Musical roots and the hot-and-goofy comedy type he was getting himself pigeonholed into.

On the production side of things, the new adaptation of Firestarter has locked in newcomer filmmaker Keith Thomas (The Vigil) as director, with Scott Teems (Narcos: MexicoRectify) joining up with the Blumhouse team again to write the script, and Martha De Laurentiis (Hannibal) on board as executive producer.

That’s about all we know for now, but we’ll keep you updated as we find out more about the new cast and who’s going to play the all-important role of Charlie McGee.

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