Confirmed to be in the works back in June, plans for Walt Disney Pictures and Imagine Entertainment‘s Splash reboot have today been revealed. Deadline reports that the new take on the 1984 mermaid-in-New York love story will star 22 Jump Street‘s Jillian Bell and Channing Tatum and will offer a gender swapped approach to the characters. Tatum will play the Daryl Hannah role as a merman with Bell playing a variation of the Tom Hanks character
The original Splash was directed by Ron Howard and was written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel from a story by Brian Grazer and Bruce Jay Friedman. It grossed nearly $70 million at the ’84 box office, and co-starred John Candy and Eugene Levy.
Splash not only marked him and director Ron Howard’s first out-and-out smash hit, it also made stars out of Hanks and Hannah.
The Splash reboot will be written by Marja-Lewis Ryan (Liked) from a pitch originated by Bell. Howard and Grazer are returning as producers alongside Reid Carolin, Peter Kiernan and Tatum himself. Anna Culp, meanwhile, is set to serve as executive producer.
Jillian Bell recently lent her voice to The Angry Birds Movie and can be seen coming up in Paramount Pictures‘ ensemble comedy Office Christmas Party. Tatum, meanwhile, starred earlier this year in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Hail, Caesar! and is set to star next summer in 20th Century Fox‘s big screen sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
