Zac Efron is aiming to dabble in cinematic crime – he and Warner Bros. (where he signed a production deal earlier this year) have won the rights to remake Swedish thriller Snabba Cash, according to the Heat Vision Blog.
Rumours of a studio bidding war – and indeed of Warners and Efron all angling to grab the remake rights – first surfaced in the LA Times late last month.
Snabba Cash, which sounds like it could be the name of a particularly foul-mouthed rapper, translates as Fast Cash, and was based on Jens Lapidus’ bestselling novel. The hero – or antihero, as it appears – is JW, a young guy who works as both a taxi driver and a runner for a coke dealer.
Efron will produce and star in the remake, which will likely get going as soon as it can lock down a script and director, since it comes with a contract clause that reverts the rights back to the producers if Warners doesn’t make it quickly enough.
Sweden’s become something of a hot property generator in the past few years, what with Let The Right One In And The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo both doing well as imports and picked up for remake treatments quicker than a Crannogsborgr cupboard from IKEA.