Fresh off its 10 year anniversary celebration, Disney Channel has announced plans to reboot “High School Musical”. The new movie will be the 4th instalment in the hit TV movie franchise.
The cable channel also revealed that a nationwide casting search is already underway. Yep, they’re bringing in a whole new crop of new stars to East High. We guess the original gang are a tad too old to pass off as 15-year-old teenagers .
“High School Musical is part of Disney Channel’s DNA. It embodies all that we stand for. As a way of continuing to embrace that heritage, we’re excited to announce ‘the start of something new’ as we launch a search for a new class of East High Wildcats to star in a fourth installment of the High School Musical franchise,” said Disney Channel President Gary Marsh.
No doubt the new actors will have big shoes to fill as the beloved teen franchise skyrocketed Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens into stardom. The popular trilogy converted a generation of youngsters into musical lovers who knew they didn’t need to conform to the status quo in order to be awesome.
We have our fingers crossed that the “High School Musical” reboot will have the same impact for a whole new generation of young teens.
E! News has also provided the scoop on the new character names and their story arcs. Erin is the only female soccer player on the boys team. She falls for Derek, the bad boy who looks tough on the outside but actually has a heart of gold and secretly teaches dance classes to young girls.
Campbell is basically Troy Bolton 2.0, who also happens to be Sharpay and Ryan Evans’ cousin. Besides Derek, Campbell is also vying for Erin’s affection. Nathalie is Erin’s bestie and East High’s outgoing cheerleader. Tamara on the other hand, used to be on the cheer squad but has somehow fallen from grace.
“High School Musical 4” will be directed and choreographed by Jeffrey Hornaday (Disney Channel’s “Teen Beach Movie”, “Teen Beach 2”) while Peter Barsocchini, who wrote all 3 “High School Musical” movies, will return to the write the script together with Dan Berendsen (“Hannah Montana: The Movie”).
Source: E! Online.
