Zac Efron to star in untitled Matt Drake film

Mandate Pictures released a press release today stating that Zac Efron will star in an upcoming original film penned by Matt Drake.

The film is a romantic action movie with Efron playing a suburbanite who spontaneously tours Europe in order to find himself. He finds himself falling in love with a young woman, who’s ex is part of the criminal underworld. Efron’s character uses his only weapons in his arsenal–wit and charm–and endures beatdown after beatdown in order to get the girl and, according to the press release, “achieve salvation”.

Fredrik Bond, a Swedish multi-award director of commercials and music videos, is set to direct the film. Bond has been nominated in 2004, 2008, and 2009 by the Director’s Guild of America as the year’s most outstanding director in commericals and was also listed as one of the most influential people in 2008 and 2009 by the industry’s leading magazine “Creativity.”

Efron has just finished his work on the upcoming film adaption of Nicholas Spark’s book, “The Lucky One”, which chronicles the story of a marine who has just come back from serving in Iraq to find an unknown woman he believes was his lucky charm during the war. He also finished work on “New Year’s Eve”, the film starring many huge stars in Hollywood; in the film, Efron plays one of several people who are trying to find love on New Year’s Eve in New York City.