Recent Stories with tag zac efron

There's still no answer to the potentially myth-building riddle that is Who Will Land the Title Role in That Kurt Cobain Biopic? But one name is no longer in the hat, if it ever was to begin with: Team Edward captain Robert Pattinson.

It's not that RPattz is too busy sucking on Kristen Stewart, that his filming schedule's too packed, or that he's Cobain-ignorant. The Nirvana fan—a dime says his favorite song is "Drain You"—essentially pulled himself out of potential contention by calling Cobain's long-self-suffering widow Courtney Love a "dick" for saying that he, Twilight Boy, would be "stupid" and "just wrong" as Kurt. "No offense," she finished. Apparently there was some taken.

While this sucks for tweens and budding cougars, it's a cause for celebration for Nirvana fans. No one would possibly see a smidgen of Cobain's soul through Pattinson's eyebrows. (He does have the pale, thin thing going for him. But no naturally disheveled, seemingly aloof gravitas.)

It's also a good thing for one Mr. Zac Efron. If you're at all familiar with the ongoing efforts to silver screen-ize Charles Cross' Heavier than Heaven, with this picture, or with Kurt Cobain's regrettably slim oeuvre, you know there's no living being better suited to portray Cobain than Efron. (I've been calling for this inevitable casting decision for years, lastly on February 21. The video above was posted February 26. Is someone really listening?) He exudes dangerous duality. He simply oozes self-loathing. And who would look better in flannel?...

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I told you before. And I'm telling you again: If there's an actor alive today who exudes all the emotional turmoil, confounding complexity, and mystic depth that was Kurt Cobain, it is the tween magnet who did those all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world high school movies.

Can Zac Efron sing? Check. (Could Cobain? Discuss.)

Can Efron play guitar? Doesn't really matter.

Can he rock a rock tee and jeans? You decide.

Can he brood? Mask pain with a sarcastic grin?

That's the real question. Can Efron—or anyone else with or without a SAG card—convey soul-deep doubt, desperate ambition, seething anger, and instant likability with a twitch of his mouth? A glacier-cool, sidelong look at the camera?

Hollywood's creative/financial minds are now seriously noodling this question, because a long-in-the-works Cobain biopic is finally moving forward. Based partially on Charles Cross' Heavier Than Heaven, a David Benioff-penned script is now in the hands of The Messenger director Oren Moverman. (Courtney Love's producer credit has not doomed the flick to straight-to-DVD obscurity. Yay!)...

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SIFF Cinema is hosting three benefit screenings that just happen to be of films hoping to garner some bigtime buzz this season (and perhaps take home an award or two).  The first up Sunday is A Single Man, the debut feature from Tom Ford, which got high praise at Toronto and Venice for Colin Firth's touching portrayal of a gay man dealing with his partner's death, along with luminous fag hag Julianne Moore.  Not bad for a director previously best known for ads featuring him naked.

Coming up Wednesday, December 2nd is Me and Orson Welles, Richard Linklater's take on the early life of the auteur.  I like Linklater, but I've got a hard time buying Zac Efron as a teenage actor who's lucked into working with Welles.  And come Sunday, December 13th, the series rounds out with Emily Blunt as The Young Victoria, which is, yes, a period piece about the Queen of England.

 

• Award-Buzz Benefit Screenings at SIFF Cinema: A Single Man, November 22nd at 2 p.m., Me and Orson Welles, December 2nd at 7 p.m., The Young...

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