Writer bopped right to the top

Peter Barsocchini is a screenwriter who a few years ago took what he thought was a small assignment to write a kids' TV musical so he could entertain his preteen daughter, Gabriella, even naming the female lead after her. That small assignment for Disney Channel turned into "High School Musical," and more recently "High School Musical 2," which became a global entertainment phenomenon -- and one of the most lucrative payouts a Hollywood writer has ever received for a single property.

"Bop to the Top" -- one of "HSM's" big musical numbers -- may as well be his personal theme song.

Before "HSM," Barsocchini was a largely unknown writer whose only previous feature credit was on the Wesley Snipes-Gary Busey actioner "Drop Zone," in 1994. Post-"HSM," he's a crazily in-demand film and TV writer with half a dozen projects on his plate, including the screenplay for the bigger-budget "High School Musical 3," which Disney plans to release theatrically next fall.

"It's just one of those projects where the planets sort of lined up from day one," Barsocchini says.

Though the filmmakers began talking about a third installment as early as late last year, a few months before filming on the second even started, Barsocchini's deal didn't close until three weeks ago because of the complexity of the property's reach. But given the success of the first one -- 4.1 million copies of its soundtrack sold, along with 8 million DVDs -- Barsocchini was able to negotiate even better terms than he had on the second.

This is because the "HSM" juggernaut is apparently unstoppable. At this point, the films' permutations are multiplying faster than a room full of third-graders taking a math test.

The Disney-produced stage version is on tour across the United States for the next 18 months and will open in Britain in January. There are performances at several of the Magic Kingdom's theme parks, as well as thousands of high schools across the country. More than 200 million unique viewers have watched some form of "High School Musical."

"I knew it was big when I went to the second premiere and actually saw all the people that really were into it," says Gabriella, who's about to start eighth grade. "That's when it kind of hit me like, I guess this is a really big deal. . . . Then all the fans tried to pull [star] Zac [Efron] over the fence."