We sort of totally forgot about this, but a “Baywatch” movie has been brewing for a few years now. Way back in 2009 Jeremy Garelick — who did an uncredited rewrite on Todd Phillips‘ “The Hangover” and also has a story credit on “The Break-Up” — was hired to write and direct a big screen adaptation of the hit ’90s TV show. About a year later, Garelick left and Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka — the 2009 Black List writers behind the upcoming David Gordon Green/Jonah Hill adventure comedy “The Sitter” — were brought on pen the script. And then we sort of stopped paying attention, but at some point Peter Tolan (“Rescue Me,” “Analyze That“) was hired and lo and behold he’s even turned in a script.
Recently a guest on the Matthew Aaron Show podcast (via JoBlo), Tolan revealed that his take on the material will be more like “Stripes” and that he didn’t pop in any VHS tapes of the show for inspiration. “It’s not based on the show in any way, though there are a couple of winks at the show…I don’t know anything about the show. I didn’t watch it in preparation for writing this,” he said.
Not that “Baywatch” is some kind of holy grail of mythology that needs to be followed, but it does beg the question of why base a movie on TV show if you’re not going to bother referencing it except for a few winks. Well, the answer is that its likely that Paramount is looking to reboot the whole thing entirely to reinvigorate the franchise. But if you absolutely need something familiar from the show to lure you in, Tolan does say that he’s written (cameo?) parts for David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson, though they are not reprising their roles.
When this babes-running-in-slow-motion-on-the-beach movie will roll is not yet known, and hell, Paramount may not even use Tolan’s script at all. But in case you had any doubt, “Baywatch: The Movie” is still very much in the works. However, trumping the majesty of “Baywatch: White Thunder at Glacier Bay” will be hard to do.
Trailer provided by Video Detective
