This rumour comes from a UK gossip magazine, so it's almost certainly just been made-up. All the same, there's an interesting kink or two in the details...
According to
OK, Efron has been hand-picked for the role of Peter Parker by Tobey Maguire. We'd
previously heard that Sam Raimi had personally selected Nimrod Antal for the director's chair, and that didn't turn out at all - the job went to Marc Webb.