Zac Efron and Seth Rogen—respectively, America’s idealistic self-image and its schlubby reality—will at last face off in a forthcoming comedy at Universal, which threw seven figures at everyone it could over the weekend in an attempt to wrest away another potential R-rated comedy hit from New Line. Rogen reportedly will collect $8 million plus a separate seven-figure producing fee to star as an ordinary everyman whose house neighbors an “alpha male fraternity house” lorded over by all-American paragons like Efron, whose frat-boy shenanigans constantly get in the way of Rogen’s family life. The as-yet-untitled comedy, written by Judd Apatow associates Andrew Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, is said to have a similar tone to Old School, which is just a buzzy way of saying that it’s a comedy about fraternities and partying and so on. More importantly, when Rogen’s staid family man inevitably learns to loosen up under Efron’s tutelage, who in return gets a lesson in responsibility and self-respect, it will mark a similar healing of America’s fractured psyche, aided by beer bongs and titties.
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