Zac Efron to Star as Kurt Cobain

Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Courtney Love can agree on few things, but recently they've been civil towards each other and even gave their blessing on a major motion picture about Nirvana, Come As You Are, scheduled to shoot later this year....

Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Courtney Love can agree on few things, but recently they’ve been civil towards each other and even gave their blessing on a major motion picture about Nirvana, Come As You Are, scheduled to shoot later this year.

The film will be directed by Anton Corbijn (who helmed Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” music video) and the cast includes Scarlett Johansson as Courtney Love, Jason Schwartzman as Dave Grohl (makes sense cause he can act and play drums), Christopher Mintz as Krist Novoselic, and maybe the biggest surprise for Nirvana fans, Zac Efron–star of High School Musicals 1, 2, and 3–as the late great frontman of the band, Kurt Cobain.

Efron apparently is so eager to shed his glam-and-glitz, teen star persona, he recently turned down an opportunity to star in the remake of Footloose to focus solely on Come As You Are. According to producers, Efron will also sing and play guitar during live performance scenes (much like Joaquin Phoenix did in Walk the Line). Ephron’s latest blog posting reads: “I’m so excited to play such a legendary performer. I’ve been a fan of Nirvana for as long as I can remember.”

(above: Smells like teen spirit, for real!)

When asked about the Disney teen star portraying his former bandmate, Dave Grohl told Metal Edge Magazine, “It’s not like he’s going to be breaking out in choreographed dance routines on set. We wanted someone who could actually sing, and someone who would polarize our audience. Kurt would have loved the idea!” Apparently Jared Leto was originally cast as Cobain, but had a falling out with the Nirvana camp during the initial script readings.

“I know Zac playing Kurt is going to shake some feathers,” said Novoselic, “but, c’mon, he kind of looks like Kurt and how bad can a guy be if he’s willing to learn how to play guitar left-handed? I’m surprised more people haven’t said anything about McLovin’ playing me.”

Happy April 1st!