Efron to remake Swedish thriller

So this is what Zac Efron had in mind when he left Footloose over type-casting fears: Swedish thrillers.

The fleet-footed young star and his production company – housed at Warner Bros – just won a tough battle over the remake rights to Swedish flick Snabba Cash , according to Heat Vision .

Literally translated, that title means ‘easy money’, and the Swedish version of the flick opened this January over in Scandinavia.

The story revolves around organised crime, and more specifically a young man who becomes a runner for a cocaine dealer. It’s based on a novel by Jens Lapidus.

Efron will star as the lead runner, and is set to produce the English speaking remake with partner Jason Barrett. Producers of the original Micky Hjorth and Fredrik Wikstrom are also involved.

Expect the cogs to get cranking on this one pretty quickly as well – Efron has signed a “short fuse” contract which means that if the film isn’t made within a certain time period, the rights will return to the original’s producers.

Next up for Efron is Charlie St. Cloud , in which he plays a cemetery caretaker who has conversations with his brother - his dead brother. With that, Me & Orson Welles , and now this, Efron really is making a concerted effort to shatter his squeaky clean image.

Can he do it? Or is he forever branded the star of High School Musical ?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.