Vanessa Hudgens isn't famous for playing action roles but that's about to change in her next project, Zack Snyder's all-female action movie Sucker Punch. The director told MTV that even he was nervous about bringing in the High School Musical star.
I wasn't sure at first – [the casting people] were like "Oh, Vanessa's coming" and I was "Oh, okay – that sounds cool" but I didn't know what to think. Then I saw the tape and I literally went "Wow, she's good." She's really good.
While Hudgens' role is not the main part (that role went to Emily Browning when Amanda Seyfried was forced to drop out), Snyder sees the smaller role as a plus for Hudgens:
She has a big part, but she's not the center of the movie. It'll allow her to stretch herself and do whatever she wants, and not be too exposed by the movie – but also, on the other hand, do things that people have never seen her do.
What "things" will audiences get to see Hudgens do?
You're going to see her shooting machine guns, fighting, beating the s**t out of people. It's funny – we sat her down for her physical evaluation, and she was really athletic. She's a dancer, so all the [fight] choreography is gonna be fun for her.
The fight choreography is being handled by Damon Caro, who worked on The Bourne Supremacy, and Snyder says the fights have "that [Bourne] vibe." Snyder promises the movie will be "hardcore," even if the rating won't. Snyder insists a PG-13 rating is possible:
If you can make Taken PG-13, you can make this movie PG-13. That's what I believe. Because it's more fantastic. No one really dies in the movie.
Production on Sucker Punch starts soon, with an opening date of March 25, 2011.