Caffeinated Clint
A film Eli Roth was briefly attached to direct, a big-screen version of “Baywatch” (yeah, I know, I know, I don’t know what the fuck he was thinking either?!), has washed up on the Paramount shore again.
Inglorious Basterd Roth is no longer onboard; instead Jeremy Garelick – who did an uncredited rewrite on Warners’ “The Hangover” – has been tapped to rewrite and direct the pic. The pic, of course, is a bigscreen comedy based on the David Hasselhoff-starring syndicated series about buff lifeguards who patrol a beach in California. The film marks Garlecki’s directing debut.
Variety says that while new Paramount Film Group prexy Adam Goodman is sorting through the studio’s development, “Baywatch” shapes up as a good bet to get made. It’s one of the projects Goodman brought over from when he was an exec at DreamWorks – which is when Roth was attached to it – and “Baywatch” has the kind of built-in global brand awareness that studios look for in potential franchises.
DreamWorks paid seven figures for remake rights in 2005 and got a script by Jay Scherick and David Ronn that was heavy on action. Garelick was sent the script do a punch-up. Though he never saw the original TV show and its well-rounded cast, he saw an opportunity to turn it into broad comedy.
Garlecki, who scripted the upcoming “The Insane Laws” for Columbia, is out to make a film that likely would’ve starred Steve Guttenberg or Willie Aames had it have been made in the 80s.
“It felt like the template to do a movie that was similar to ‘Stripes’ and ‘Police Academy,’ the comedies I loved growing up,” Garelick said, adding that he wrote the first 30 pages-or-so of the film in prep for his pitch to Para. “Rather than trying to pitch the tone, I figured it would be easier to write the first act to convey who these characters were,”.
I can see my good friend Erika Eleniak having a chuckle about all this already… am I right, E?
