Who ever thought that playing a somewhat scrawny character who morphed into a brawny yet hairless werewolf would make for an excellent career move? That’s exactly what Taylor Lautner has done, according to the caustic but admittedly useful Nikki Finke, who claims that Lautner is now the highest paid teenage actor in history:
I’ve just learned that Taylor Lautner is now being paid per ab. That’s right, the 17-year-old co-star of the Twilight Saga franchise who’s famous for his buff physique that is making girls scream when he takes off his shirt in New Moon, is getting $7.5 million for his next pic. It’s called Northern Lights, a Tom Cruise vehicle to be directed by John Moore (Max Payne) with a start date of April 1st. The logline says the pic is about “a gifted, young, aerobatics pilot who faces off with his controlling, billionaire father and falls in love with a gifted, female pilot). It’s being made by David Elliso’s new company Skydance Productions, and Paramount has a first look at his development. That shitload of money negotiated by WME now makes Taylor Lautner into the highest paid Hollywood teenage actor around. (I’m told that neither Zac Efron nor Miley Cyrus have ever gotten a salary even close to that for their films. Amazing!)
Now, if you’re thinking that this project resembles earlier buzzings about a sequel to Top Gun, you wouldn’t be alone. Cinematical even goes so far as to label Northern Lights as an “aeronautic romance.” Swordfight! Swordfight!
