‘Splash’ Remake Casts Channing Tatum and Jillian Bell in Gender-Swapped Roles
Earlier this month producer Brian Grazer let slip that he was working with Disney on a new remake of Splash, which would reimagine Ron Howard’s 1984 classic with a bit of a twist. And while Grazer was annoyingly coy about it, we all assumed that it would have something to do with gender-swapping the lead roles — and that assumption has proven correct, as Channing Tatum and Jillian Bell have signed on to star in the remake, which will apparently fulfill the dreams of those who have a very specific fetish.
Yep, Channing Tatum is going to play a merman. Deadline reports that Grazer and Howard are producing the new remake based on their original 1984 rom-com, in which Tom Hanks starred as a man who falls in love with a mermaid, played by Daryl Hannah. Tatum will play the Hannah role in the film, which is based on a pitch from his 22 Jump Street co-star. Bell will play the Hanks role — a sentence that would be brilliant if applied to any remake of a Tom Hanks film.
The screenplay for the Splash remake will be written by Marja-Lewis Ryan, who recently completed production on Liked, a new comedy from producer Timur Bekmambetov.
It’s unclear when the Splash redo will begin filming; Tatum just wrapped on Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky, and Fox is reportedly eyeing an early 2017 production start for the actor’s long-developing Gambit movie.