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Universal Pays Big for R-Rated Comedy with Seth Rogen & Zac Efron

by Ethan Anderton
July 23, 2011
Source: Deadline

After Universal enjoyed the surprise box office success of Bridesmaids and New Line enjoyed a moderate, on-going return on Horrible Bosses, both of the studios were eager to get their hands on another successful R-rated comedy. Deadline reports the two were involved in quite the bidding war for a new untitled comedy with Seth Rogen and Zac Efron attached to star in the film, and Universal has come out on top. The studio has snagged a script from writers Andrew Cohen and Brendan O'Brien (who both produced Funny People for Judd Apatow) in a seven-figure deal, an unusual pricetag for a raunchy comedy. Read on!

Descirbed as having the same tone as Old School, the film follows a regular guy (Rogen) who lives near an alpha male fraternity house while Efron plays a member of the fraternity whose raucous behavior wreaks havoc on the other guy's family life. In a way, this sounds like the kind of pairing that made Pineapple Express so fun. And in that same fashion, it's interesting to have Efron playing the character creating problems by being an out of control fraternity brother rather than Rogen taking the role. Rogen has said that the idea to have James Franco play the drug dealer character in the aforementioned action comedy was a late decision, and this sounds like another attempt to mix up the buddy formula with Efron and Rogen's pairing like this. Rogen is also producing with his writing partner Evan Goldberg, but no director is attached yet, so stay tuned as this project develops.

Filed under Casting, Development, Movie News

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