A24 Boards Celebrity Thriller ‘Famous’ Starring Zac Efron With Jody Hill Directing

Zac Efron
Brian Bowen Smith

EXCLUSIVE: Following the success of its wrestling drama The Iron Claw, A24 has teamed up with Zac Efron for his next project as Deadline is hearing the studio has landed domestic distribution rights to the thriller Famous starring Efron. Jody Hill is on board to direct with Michael Sagol, Sam Esmail and Chad Hamilton producing. Esmail and Hamilton will produce through their Esmail Corp. banner.

WME Independent and CAA Media Finance brokered the sale. Black Bear Pictures is handling international sales.

The film will star Efron in dual roles, playing both overzealous fan, Lance Dunkquist, and Hollywood heartthrob, James Jansen. The film is based on the acclaimed novel by New York Times-bestselling author Blake Crouch and is adapted for the screen by Chad Hodge, who also adapted Crouch’s Wayward Pines trilogy into a series.

The story follows Dunkquist, who has one asset that’s about to change his life – he has the face of a movie star. And not just any movie star – Lance is the spitting image of a Hollywood icon, James Jansen. Lance is about to travel to Los Angeles to make his dream come true. Lance is going to be famous, no matter what it takes.

The film marks a reunion for the studio and Efron after working together on The Iron Claw, which bowed this past Christmas and starred Efron, Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson. The pic not only earned Efron some of the best reviews of his career, it also became one of A24’s biggest box-office hits bringing in $45 million at the global box-office. It recently premiered on Max this past May and has become one of the streamer’s top movies to premiere this year.

Hill is best known for his edgy TV comedies that include Vice Principals and Eastbound and Down. On the film side he has directed Observe and Report and The Legacy of the Whitetail Deer Hunter.

Efron is repped by WME and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole and Hill is repped by LBI Entertainment and CAA. Hodge is represented by WME and Anonymous Content.

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