Zac Efron Lands Lead Role in 'Me and Orson Welles'

The leading star of 'High School Musical' franchise has landed another film role as he was signed to play the lead role in a coming-of-age independent film alongside Ben Chaplin and Christian McKay.

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The Hollywood young heartthrob Zac Efron is said to join the cast of coming-of-age film "Me and Orson Welles". The actor famous as Troy Bolton in Disney's "High School Musical" reportedly nailed the lead role. He will be joining a newcomer Christian McKay who star as Orson Welles and the star of "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep", Ben Chaplin, as George Coulouris.

Based on Robert Kaplow's novel, the independently financed film is set in 1937 and tells the story about a high school student who is noticed by the Mercury Theatre founder, Orson Welles, while strolling the streets of New York. The film is directed by Richard Linklater and produced by Anne Carli.

Efron, who was hospitalized on Tuesday, January 15 to undergo an an emergency appendectomy, is currently involved with the production of New Line Cinema's role-reversal comedy "Seventeen". Reportedly, he will return to filming the film after he recover from the surgery. Then, he will shoot "Orson" around mid-February to March in such locales as New York, London and the Isle of Man, before returning to filming "High School Musical 3: Senior Year".

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