Zac Efron to play notorious serial killer

Zac Efron has come on board to star as serial killer Ted Bundy in the independent drama “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”.

Voltage Pictures and Michael Costigan's Cota Films are producing with Joe Berlinger directing. Michael Werwie wrote the original screenplay, which won the Nicholl Fellowship first prize.

The film is set to commence principal photography on October 9. Voltage will fully finance and is handling international sales at the Cannes Film Festival.

Efron will be seen next in Paramount's “Baywatch” opposite Dwayne Johnson. He's also starring in Fox's “The Greatest Showman” with Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams, directed by Michael Gracey.

The project was unveiled in 2014 at the Cannes Film Festival with Ziad Doueiri (“The Attack”) set to make his English-language feature debut. It follows the dysfunctional relationship between Bundy and his long-time girlfriend Liz. Bundy, a killer and rapist of young girls and women who was notoriously charming, was executed in Florida in 1989.

Berlinger was nominated in 2012 for an Academy Award for best documentary for “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”.

Source: Variety