Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne are getting a new neighbor. Chloe Moretz, the teen actress who recently toplined YA tearjerker If I Stay and broke out back in 2010 with Kick-Ass, has joined the talented trio in Neighbors 2. Nicholas Stoller is back in the director’s chair for the follow-up to last year’s summer smash hit, working from a script by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien.
The first film centered on a young married couple (Rogen and Byrne) who moved into a seemingly pleasant neighborhood with their newborn daughter only to come up against the college fraternity next door, headed by charismatic but cold-hearted Teddy (Efron).
[zerg]Plot details for the sequel are being kept under wraps, but Moretz makes sense for the role of a sorority sister, perhaps a similar head honcho to Efron’s Teddy, who butts heads with the central couple. Early plot details suggested that Neighbors 2 would find the couple enlisting Teddy and their former frat enemies to combat an unruly, provocative sorority that again menaces the safety of the neighborhood for their young daughter.
Moretz is more known for her dramas than her comedies – she recently appeared opposite Denzel Washington in The Equalizer, alongside Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria and with Charlize Theron in Dark Places. However, the actress did showcase some ace comic timing in Kick-Ass, underrated Lynn Shelton comedy Laggies and the all-around awful Movie 43, so this isn’t entirely out of left field for her.
Universal is understandably gung-ho about the sequel, seeing as the first Neighbors scored $268 million after opening last May. Recruiting a rising star like Moretz, who seems on the cusp of really blowing up with next year’s YA franchise hopeful The 5th Wave, makes perfect sense for the project.
