Mark Your Calendars!!

Mark your calendars, "High School Musical" fans: The sequel to the worldwide phenomenon will premiere August 17th on Disney Channel. "High School Musical 2" stopped shooting a week ago. But Gary Marsh, entertainment president for Disney Channel Worldwide, provided a preview to the Orlando Sentinel. He was in town for the Disney Channel Games, which are being played at Wide World of Sports. Still bummed that she was upstaged in the first movie, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) plots her revenge. She arranges for Troy (Zac Efron) to land a summer job at her family's country club and tries to isolate him from his friends. He, however, brings his pals along to work at the club. Undeterred, Sharpay tempts Troy with opportunities. He loses his way and alienates his buddies. "The first one was about following your dreams," Marsh says. "This, thematically, is about: What’s important to me? Is it the material trappings of life that count? Or is it friends and family? This is Troy’s sense to locate his own personal moral compass and make sure he follows it."

Heroine Gabriella (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) doesn't like the changes she sees in Troy and tells him he has become a different person. She sings "I've Gotta Go My Own Way." The first "High School Musical" added "Get'cha Head in the Game" to the pop-culture lexicon. The second could do the same for "I Don't Dance," a song about baseball. "Kenny Ortega has choreographed an entire baseball game with a combination of swing and hiphop," Marsh says. "The game is played out through dance."

Then there's "You Are the Music in Me," a romantic ballad between Troy and Gabriella. "It will stop you in your tracks," Marsh says. Marsh says the goal wasn't to make a better movie than the original, but to deepen the characters and tell a more sophisticated story. "What did I have going for me? The exact same team. Every single one of the stars came back," Marsh says. Director Ortega and writer Peter Barsocchini returned as well.

"We had a brilliant team on the first one," Marsh says. "The best thing I could do was reassemble them for the second one. That’s what I did." The marketing for the sequel will be marginally bigger than that for the original. "Our audience knows this movie is coming," Marsh says. "They couldn’t be more excited to see it. We just need to put it out in front of them and they’ll come."

A third "High School Musical," to be shown in theaters, is planned to premiere next year. Conversations about the actors returning for that project have just begun, Marsh says.
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That's RIGHT, people!! HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 will be premiering on the Disney Channel on AUGUST 17th, 2007!!

Who's excited?? I know I AM!! ... In other news, Zac Efron (aka Troy Bolton from HSM) has made People's Most Beautiful Issue... this is the picture they used in the magazine, and oh boy, he sure IS beautiful!


[Source: zac-e.com]

Speaking of hot stars, HSM's VANESSA ANNE HUDGENS won Rising New Popstar at the 9th annual Young Hollywood Awards... congratulations to her!


here she is pictured (on the left, holding the award) with Laguna Beach's Kristin Cavallari and HSM co-star Ashley Tisdale.
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Speaking of battling for awards... how about just pure BATTLING?! Here's a picture of the TEAMS for this year's Disney Channel's Annual Disney Channel Games!

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And for those of you on the WEST COAST, you still have a chance to see the movie of the day! (It slipped my mind earlier that on the Weekends, Disney Channel @ The Movies is at 1PM ET/PT!! Today, they will be showing...


Enjoy! And if you don't want to watch that, click HERE for the complete listing of today's schedule on the Disney Channel!

DON'T FORGET!.. : Click on the image below to...:


toodles!
love,
andi w.

p.s. be an individual... don't stick to the status quo! :D