Hollywood Ink: Zac Efron Two Steps Closer to World Domination

Also in today's stimulating trade news and developments: Daniel Craig makes the obvious official... Sam Worthington comes and goes... Miramax still isn't a done deal.... and more.

· Zac Efron may be self-deprecating in person, but don't let that distract you from his continuing ambitions toward cultural conquest (at least): The young actor in in talks for the lead in the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Lucky One, playing an Iraq War veteran who returns home in search of the girl in a random snapshot he found -- and which he believes was his good-luck charm through three tours. Efron's also tied to Died in a Gunfight, a "Tarantino-esque blend of Gossip Girl, True Romance, and Romeo and Juliet" that would feature Efron as the deadbeat son of a New York attorney enmeshed in an affair that sounds like it goes all kinds of wrong. Neither are done deals, but depending on this week's Charlie St. Cloud opening, I imagine you'll hear more about both soon. [Vulture]

· Daniel Craig's casting in the American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is officially official. [Deadline]

· Sam Worthington is out and Tom Hardy is in for This Means War, the spy caper/romcom about two agents (Hardy and Chris Pine) who fall in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon). McG is set to direct. [Vulture]

· Worthington is aboard the psychological cop thriller Man on a Ledge, meanwhile, which just recruited director Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cite Soleil) to take the reins. [LAT]

· The consortium that won the bidding for Miramax reportedly has yet to deliver a nonrefundable $40 million deposit to Disney. It has until Wednesday, at which time the studio can and may resume taking offers. Sigh. [NYT]

· Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has begun shopping his own graphic novel creation Oblivion around to studios with partners at Radical Publishing. It's basically Wall-E with an abandoned soldier and his shipwrecked love interest where the overrated cooing robots go. Not coincidentally, Disney will get first crack at it. [Deadline]