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Chace Crawford Replaces Zac Efron in Footloose Musical

by Alex Billington
May 19, 2009

Late last year it was announced that High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron would star in Paramount's big screen Footloose musical. But then in March, he dropped out, saying that he didn't want to do yet another musical so soon. So who did they find to replace him? Variety has confirmed that "Gossip Girl" star Chace Crawford will take the lead instead. I don't know many people who watch "Gossip Girl" so most probably not know who he is. Chase has only starred in The Haunting of Molly Hartley so far, but is also part of Joel Schumacher's upcoming film Twelve. Shooting is scheduled to start in March of next year.

Paramount is developing this as a "more mature, edgy version" of Footloose than the original, and will draw on the older fans of "Gossip Girl" more than the tween Efron fans. High School Musical and Miley Cyrus favorite Kenny Ortega is directing this update Footloose. For most of you, switching from Efron to Crawford is not going to mean anything, and isn't much of an improvement. However, I honestly would've preferred Efron, as he did a pretty good job in Hairspray. There's not much more to really say about this casting news and I'll probably wait until we see some footage before I say anything else about Crawford's casting.

Explore tags: Casting, Movie News

Scott McHenry

good for Efron, another musical would be too much. Crawford will do a good job. Not like I really care since this kind of stuff is not my cup of tea but its good to see Efron making a good career move.
Jerry

Zac Efron made a good move I think, do we really need a remake of Footloose? Chace Crawford can't really act as far as I've seen and we've never seen him dance or sing, so I definitely have serious doubts about this choice. It seems like they cast him just because he vaguely looks like Efron. Overall, a major downgrade from Efron in my book.
viral

also heard julianne hough from dancing with the stars is in talks to be the female lead... Chace is an OK actor on Gossip girl he is just the eye candy so cant complain on his acting skills just yet... i love musicals and if they edgy it up it could do fairly well... Julianne hough is a phenomenal dancer and a decent country singer... this movie has me somewhat interested.
http://myspace.com/erikthecoolkid erik

: / im still sad TWELVE is being made.i was writing script too,since i was 16.sweeet thats not gonna happen.
janet

disappointed...but I never wanted a reboot.