The big screen musical series that launched the careers of teen stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale is being expanding into the Asian market with a remake of the 2006 TV movie, starring an all-Chinese cast and featuring a new screenplay.

The HSM franchise has been wildly lucrative for Disney, spawning a stage show, a bestselling soundtrack, a book series, and video games. The series featured three film and a fourth already in production.

“We wrote an original screenplay from the ground up. This is inspired by the spirit of the first one. The young stars are not as well known as they will be soon. The key for us was that they could sing and dance and whether they had the energy and charisma needed,” Jason Reed, General Manager of Walt Disney Studios international production, revealed to Variety on Monday.

Disney High School Musical: China is shooting in Shanghai and is slated for a summer 2010 release.

“All this exposure to young children does put me off having them,” The 20-year-old actress, who played Gabriella Montez in Disney’s hit High School Musical franchise, joked to The Mirror on Sunday.

“I love kids, don’t get me wrong, because without them I wouldn’t be where I am today, but they do follow me around to the most peculiar places,” Vanessa added.

“And they’re very loud! When they start screaming it’s sweet to see how enthusiastic they are, but I’m going to go deaf sooner than most people. It’s impossible to calm them down when they start, I just cover my ears.”

The 21-year-old, who played Troy Bolton in the first three HSM films, spoofed his career by giving a commencement address to a class of East High seniors.

“Here’s the deal, no one sings at college, and from what I can tell, this is America’s only singing high school,” Troy says. “People just stared at me, there was zero choreography, zero!”

MTV is developing a weekly series that will parody Disney’s High School Musical. Private High Musical, based on an online series of the same name, could arrive on the network, in the form of a weekly half hour series, as early as next Fall.

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Disney has announced plans for a fourth installment of the wildly popular High School Musical franchise.

The plot of the new movie, which begins production later this year, follows “a love story and the cross-town rivalry between the East High Wildcats and West High Knights,” according to a press release.

The new music and dance-filled movie, complete with a new cast of characters, will debut on the Disney Channel in 2010.

“I was average,” he says in the April issue of Family Circle.

Zac, 21, insists he was nothing like his HSM alter-ego, high school basketball star Troy Bolton.

“I had a lot of friends but I was not in that ultra cool circle. I was a bit of a class clown. I guess to get through the tedium of the quadratic formula, I thought everyone was fair game.”

He added: “Between self-discovery and the social hierarchy, high school can be the most confusing time of your life.”

Are weddings bells about to ring for young lovers Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens? According to National Enquirer spies Disney heartbreaker Zac Efron popped the question to his co-star sweetheart, Vanessa Hudgens, while the pair were in Japan promoting the release of High School Musical 3 last month.

Tabloid tattles say the engagement a spur of the moment thing, mostly meant to calm Vanessa’s super-conservative mom who has spoken out against the 21-year-olds recent decision to move in together.

“Zac hasn’t given Vanessa a ring yet. But he’s hoping the proposal will buy him some time with Vanessa’s super-strict mom, Gina, who didn’t approve of the sweethearts living together before they were married.”

High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens picked up thousands of dollars worth of freebies at this weekend’s Golden Globe Awards.

The 20-year-old actress stocked up on as many items as possible from the ceremony’s sponsors and various parties. Vanessa’s assistant was even seen carrying four bags crammed with name brand gifts.

A BlackBerry Pearl phone and a diamond pendant were among the items in V-Hud’s goody bag.

A spy at one afterparty dished in Monday’s edition of the New York Daily News, “Vanessa overtook the area and was careful to make sure she took something from every booth.”

Spotted At

Vanessa Hudgens will be traveling in style now that the High School Musical star’s heartthrob boyfriend, actor Zac Efron, has shelled out $50,000 on an antique Louis Vuitton steamer trunk as a gift for the actress.

An insider tells Star Magazine: “Vanessa loves Louis Vuitton, but she wouldn’t spend the money for it.”