For a generation raised on High School Musical and its multifaceted sequels, it might be difficult to view Zac Efron as anything other than that sunny-smiled high school student who sang and danced his way through secondary education. But he’s been trying to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor for several years now, appearing in films like The Lucky One, That Awkward Moment and The Paperboy in an attempt to shed at least some of that pristine Disney image. Now, he’s signed up appear in John Grisham thriller The Associate, following in the footsteps of Tom Cruise and Matt Damon before him.
The Associate has been in the pipeline since 2008, with Shia LaBeouf set to star and Tony Scott in line to direct. It then moved on to director Adrian Lyne, but is now back with a new screenwriter before being shopped to new studios. With a star like Efron attached, it shouldn’t be too difficult a sell; then again, this has been sitting around for awhile.
If The Associate gets off the ground, it will star Efron as Kyle McAvoy, a brilliant young legal mind (what else?) with a dark secret. Blackmailed by two shadowy associates, Kyle finds himself working for a high-powered New York law firm with the goal of manipulating the firm in a dispute between two defense contractors. Amazon refers to it as a “malignant conspiracy that not even Kyle with all his intellect, cunning, and bravery may be able to escape alive.”
So The Associate certainly sounds like a John Grisham thriller, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It could be a lot of fun, if Efron has a good director and strong script backing him up. He was fairly surprising in The Paperboy, so perhaps he’ll be able to pull off this next evolution of his acting career without too much pain.
As always, we’ll keep an eye on The Associate as news becomes available.
