corbin bleu Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well, you can all breathe easy now. After all the hubbub over whether the entire cast of Disney's remarkably successful High School Musical franchise would return for the third film in the series, all the main cast has finally signed on to come back one more time. Variety reports that all six leads -- Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman -- have signed on to return for High School Musical 3, which will hit a theater near you on October 24.

There was concern over whether Vanessa Anne Hudgens, who plays female lead Gabriella, would be back for the third film after some nudie pics she sent to boyfriend (and High School Musical heartthrob) Zac Efron leaked out onto the internet. Then there was concern over whether Disney would fork over enough cash to entice Efron himself to return (and sorry, but you just cannot have High School Musical 3 without Efron asTroy -- the tween girlies of America would unite against that in a hurry), given all the big screen success he's enjoying as a result of his High School Musical fame. Efron had a decent turn as Link Larkin in Hairspray (where he finally got to sing all on his own) and has been in talks on several projects, including upcoming pic Seventeen, (kind of a reverse of Big, one of my favorite movies ever -- remember how young and cute Tom Hanks was in that?) in which he will play a man who returns to being a high school student.

I don't know about you, but I'll sleep easier at night knowing the continuing adventures of the Wildcats gang are coming this fall. I can't think of a better way to come down off the headiness of all those serious films at Telluride and Toronto than to hit a screening of High School Musical 3, and find out what happens when Troy and Gabriella head to different colleges. Oh, boy! The possibilities (and opportunities to randomly break out into song-and-dance numbers) are practically endless. If you've got a tween in your life, you'd better start practicing your cool dance moves, and get ready to have more annoyingly-perky-yet-catchy tunes stuck in your head.

Thanks to Biloxi Blues and Big Top Pee-Wee, Penelope Ann Miller was one of my childhood crushes. I think the attraction continued for a few years until I found her completely annoying in Kindergarten Cop. Since then, I haven't really watched her in anything except Carlito's Way, and that wasn't until fairly recently. Still, I always felt kinda bad for her, mostly due to those rumors that ex-boyfriend Al Pacino had purposefully ruined her career. Of course, Pacino neither ruined her career nor ruined her love life (who knew she was shortly married to Will Arnett?). Now, Miller is married and she's adding another movie to her resume. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she's been cast in Free Style, a coming-of-age action-drama set in the world of motocross. Unfortunately, she doesn't appear to be gearing up to ride. Instead, she'll be playing a single mom to one of the riders. Her part doesn't sound too small, though, as her character is given even more description than that: she's a single mom who "strives to provide for her family while studying full-time to become a nurse."

Free Style, which was previously titled Metal Birding, began filming last month and stars Corbin Bleu (High School Musical) as a motocross racer attempting to win the Amateur National Championships while also helping to provide for his own family (no connection between Bleu and Miller's characters are given, but it would seem they'd be son and mother). Also in the cast are Sandra Echeverria (Crazy), as Bleu's girlfriend, Matt Bellefleur (Christmas in Wonderland), who plays Bleu's rival, nine-year-old Madison Pettis (Barney & Friends) and motocross star Grant Langston, who cameos as Bleu's idol. The movie is now being helmed by William Dear (Harry and the Hendersons), who is replacing original director Jeff Woolnough, whose reason for leaving is unknown.

While most movie-watching eyes were on the theatrical box office this weekend, wondering if Superbad would surpass expectations and if The Invasion would crash, another demographic had a higher priority -- the hotly anticipated premiere of High School Musical 2 Friday night on The Disney Channel. If you don't have a tween, it might not have been on your radar, but if you, like me, have a girl between the ages of 9-12 in your house (and be honest, a lot of you high school girls were watching it too) you've been hearing of little else for weeks.

In our house, we became aware of the phenomena that is High School Musical when the first one premiered on January 20, 2006. Our daughter, then almost-nine, DVRed it and she (and we, by default) watched that movie so many times that it wasn't unusual for me or my husband to be caught absent-mindedly singing "We're All in This Together" or "Get Your Head in the Game" -- two of the shows most popular tunes -- while we bopped about the house doing chores. Then they had the karaoke version, and the version where the cast taught you the moves to the choreography for "We're All in This Together" step-by-step, and pretty soon even the two-year old was showing off his "cool moves" to company.