By Travis Johnson
Following in the footsteps of Jason Momoa in the emerging “hunky fishguy” subgenre, Channing Tatum will star alongside Jillian Bell in a gender-reversed remake of Ron Howard’s 1984 romantic comedy, Splash. Howard and his producing partner, Brian Glazer, will collaborate on the project with Disney, via their production company, Imagine Entertainment.
The original Splash saw Tom Hanks falling for the Daryl Hannah-shaped mermaid who saved his life when he was a boy and, understandably, falling head over heels for her. Much cross-cultural confusion abounded as Hannah’s character, dubbed “Madison” after a Madison Avenue street sign, eats shellfish like a Viking, squeaks like a dolphin, and displays a flexible attitude to the whole concept of clothing. John Candy and Eugene Levy also crop up. The remake will presumably have Tatum indulging in similar antics, which should draw in the Magic Mike crowd.
No director is attached as yet, but Maria Lewis-Ryan is on script duties (the original was penned by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell, who wrote every single American big screen comedy from 1982 to 1994). Expect the internet to explode into a frothing rage of strawman arguments about ruined childhoods and the horrors of the objectifying female gaze in three… two… one…
