Time to mark your calendars, High School Musical fans, because now it's official.  High School Musical 3 will be the first of the wildly popular Disney series to debut in theaters nationwide, and is is currently set for an October 2008 release date.  According to Entertainment Weekly, star Zac Efron is set to pull in a massive $3 million payday for his work on High School Musical 3.  Although salaries for co-stars Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale haven't been released, the ladies were also seeking a hefty pay raise.  One would assume they got their wish.  The film will once again be helmed by director and choreographer Kenny Ortega.  As for the content of High School Musical 3, Vanessa Hudgens let loose some significant details about the plot to Us Weekly. 

There were early rumblings that High School Musical 3 would have sort of Halloween, haunted house theme, but that appears to be false. In a quote from US Weekly, Hudgens revealed that “It's their senior year, so there's going to be graduation - and prom!”  Now, there are some different conclusions we can come to in regards to this quote.  As we know from generations of high school films, the best climax is normally the prom, and not graduation.  Graduation on film (as it is in real life) is anti-climactic, but the prom, well, that's where the drama is.  I think we can assume that a significant amount, if not the bulk, of the action will take place at prom.  Graduation just doesn't seem like the right setting for High School Musical, unless it serves as some sort of epilogue or coda. 

It was also revealed that the entire original cast will return, a welcome sentiment for fans of the first two High School Musical films.  Kenny Ortega, the director, also revealed that High School Musical 3 would likely be the final installment for this group of stars, but that the franchise could move to another generation.  Kind of like Saved by the Bell: The New Class.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: Us Weekly
(Image Courtesy of BricksandStoneGossip.com)