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Tisdale Branching Out With New Deals

''High School Musical'' star Ashley Tisdale is eyeing a first-look deal with ''American Idol'' producer FreemantleMedia North America and a starring role in United Artists' remake of ''Teen Witch''

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ASHLEY TISDALE The ''High School Musical'' star is reportedly looking to take on production projects

Chris Polk/WireImage

(FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) – High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale is reportedly nearing a one-year, first-look deal with the American Idol producers, FreemantleMedia North America, as well as a deal that will have her executive produce a new untitled series for Disney Channel and a starring role in United Artists' remake of the 1989 movie Teen Witch. The original Witch was a fantasy musical starring Robyn Lively as an unpopular girl who learned she was a descendent of Salem witches and had inherited their powers. A script has not yet been written for the remake. The as-yet untitled Disney Channel show is set in a mall, based on Tisdale's own experience as a pre-HSM mall employee. She will serve as exec producer but not star.

As for the FreemantleMedia deal, it is unclear from conflicting reports whether the producers would build projects revolving around Tisdale, as Variety reports, or whether she will just serve as a producer and help develop unscripted shows aimed at a younger demographic, as reported by Hollywood Reporter, with no plans to star in them.

Tisdale played Sharpay Evans in High School Musical and its sequel, and she will reprise the role in High School Musical 3, which is set to become the first movie in the franchise to see a theatrical release. She recently wrapped production on Fox's adventure comedy They Came From Upstairs. Tisdale also plays Maddie in Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and has appeared in the movie Donnie Darko and the TV shows Still Standing, Grounded for Life, The Hughleys, and Beverly Hills, 90210. Tisdale also released a CD, Headstrong, in 2007 and is currently working on a second album. (Hollywood Reporter)