Director Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters) didn't end up making the Uncharted movie he wanted to. He's ready to compensate, though, and it looks as though he'll do so with a walk down the beach.
But he's not pulling out Pina Coladas or enjoying the waves. Rather, he's leaving one troubled adaptation to move into another, as he signs on to direct the long-gestured Baywatch film reboot, slated to star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. With a director attached, hopes are to have this one ready to shoot by early 2016, with no official release date confirmed. Hopefully the weather's warm enough to make this a breezier production. The Hollywood Reporter got the latest info on the Paramount comedy.
A new re-imagining of Baywatch is something the studio has hoped to make for eleven years now, with first rumblings coming to past in 2004. In that time, several writers and directors joined and left the project, including Robert Ben Garant (Reno 911), Justin Malen and more. The current draft comes from Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, horror writers behind Freddy vs. Jason and 2009's Friday the 13th remake who've turned themselves into comedy penmen through their in-the-works screenplays such as the R-rated, raunchy Bad Santa-esque leprechaun romp O' Lucky Day, starring Peter Dinklage, and Disney's Aladdin prequel Genies.
Johnson will play a serious, by-the-books lifeguard forced to work with a hothead young punk to stop the beach from being taken over by an oil tycoon. With a plot as run-of-the-mill as that, some kind of 21 and 22 Jump Street-type farce is almost certain, and that's what word-of-mouth from insiders suggest as well. That kind of comedy is getting a little too overdone these days — especially considering how this Wednesday's Vacation turned out — but maybe there's something here to make this one a little more worth-the-while. There's tons of over-serious goofs to be made at the original 1990s show expense, and a cameo (or cameos) from David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra or any of the other original cast members is basically guaranteed to wash up during the running time, perhaps just before the film's tides wash up.
Ironically, Gordon takes over for Seth Anders and John Morris, who stepped in his director's chair last year to make Horrible Bosses 2. Meanwhile, Johnson's producing team at Seven Bucks Productions, including partners Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia, are also involved creatively. They're behind recent Johnson projects like Snitch, HBO's summer hit Ballers and the upcoming Big Trouble in Little China remake and Rampage, based on the '80s video game. That movie also found a director this week in Brad Peyton, who previously worked with The Rock in this summer's box-office hit San Andreas.
Should Gordon not flake again, this will be his first movie since 2013's awful Identity Thief. He's most recent efforts are all sitcom-based, calling the shots on recent episodes of The Goldbergs, the cancelled Marry Me and the pilot for The Jim Gaffigan Show.
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