I’m surprised that Ashley Tisdale is coming back to The Disney Channel in a High School Musical spinoff when all the news reports about her kept saying she was done playing Sharpay Evans and looking to go edgy as a pop star. But here she is, starring in the Disney Channel original movie slated for a 2011 premiere, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure, according to today’s announcement. Granted, Ashley will exec produce as well as star in the bound-for-Broadway tale (who arrived in Midtown Manhattan as a recent winner of So You Think You’re America’s Most Talented Performing Idol). Written by Robert Horn (producer of Broadway’s 13 and writer/producer of Designing Women), the pic has Barry Rosenbush and Bill Borden (both of the High School Musical movies) also exec producing. Filming starts this summer.
Ashley won an MTV Movie Award and a Nickelodeon UK Kids’ Choice Awards for her portrayal of Sharpay. A Warner Bros. Records recording artist, Tisdale’s second solo album, “Guilty Pleasure,” is certified gold. High School Musical has reached more than 290 million viewers, in 24 languages. Its sequel, High School Musical 2, ranked as the #1 basic cable telecast of all time (18.6 million viewers) and has been seen by nearly 300 million total viewers, in over 27 languages. High School Musical 3: Senior Year in 2008 grossed more than $250 million at the worldwide box office.