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  <abstract>Vanessa Hudgens has agreed to star opposite Alex Pettyfer in a big screen version of Alex Finn's popular young adult novel "Beastly."</abstract>
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  <author>HitFix Staff</author>
  <body>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Zac Efron may be climbing up the moviestar charts, but his girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens isn't that far behind him.&amp;nbsp; O.K., she's really far behind him, but she's certainly giving it the old "HSM" try. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to Marc Malkin at &lt;a href="http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b119842_vanessa_hudgens_new_british_import.html" target="_self"&gt;EOnline&lt;/a&gt;, Hudgens has signed on to star in a big screen adaptation of Alex Finn's young adult novel, "Beastly," a modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast."&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hudgens would star opposite Alex Pettyfer who will play Kyle Kingsbury, the New York City high school student who had it all until a witch in his english class turned him into a walking monster.&amp;nbsp; Hudgens plays the "beauty" who could break the spell.&amp;nbsp; Moviegoers may recognize Pettyfer as&amp;nbsp; the teen spy Alex Rider in "Stormbreaker." He also stars in the Emma Roberts tween click "Wild Child" which already opened overseas, but is currently without a domestic release date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Intriguingly, the report notes that Efron was once a top contender for the same role.&amp;nbsp; After the success of "17 Again," he's clearly looking to distance himself from the overly teen-friendly roles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Production on "Beastly" should begin this summer. Hudgens will then segue to another re-telling of a classic tale, Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" which is inspired by "Alice in Wonderland."&amp;nbsp; Hudgens next film, &lt;a href="../../../events/2009-3-3-bandslam" target="_self"&gt;"Bandslam,"&lt;/a&gt; will hit theaters on August 14.&lt;/p&gt;</body>
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  <created-at type="datetime">2009-04-22T20:02:15Z</created-at>
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  <deckhead>Zac Efron's ladyfriend commits to contemporary 'Beaty and the Beast'</deckhead>
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  <seo-title>Will Vanessa Hudgens find Alex Pettyfer 'Beastly'?</seo-title>
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  <title>Will Vanessa Hudgens find Alex Pettyfer 'Beastly'?</title>
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