A film version of the popular, and very cheesy, ’90s TV series Baywatch has been officially in the works since Paramount bought the rights back in 2012. Dwayne Johnson has already been confirmed to star and now a certain former High School Musical star is in talks to join him.
THR has the news that Zac Efron is in negotiations with the studio to put on his bright red beach shorts, take off his top and run in slow motion alongside The Rock in the big-screen version of the fondly remembered show. Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon will be calling the shots on the this one, having been locked in a few weeks ago.
So what’s the plot this time around? Well…
The story centers on a by-the-book and very serious lifeguard (Johnson) who is forced to team up with a young rule-flouting hothead (Efron) in order to save their beach from environmental destruction at the hands of an oil tycoon.
Nothing like the big-screen and a bigger budget to up the stakes!
Beau Flynn is producing the film (his fourth time collaborating with Johnson in such a capacity) alongside none other than Ivan Reitman. There have been many drafts of the script over the development period but the most recent draft was written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who were both recently announced as writing the Aladdin prequel Genies.
Evidently Efron – for both audiences and studio folks – is following in the footsteps of Channing Tatum in being seen in a brand new light. He was one of the best things about Bad Neighbours and that plus other projects like The Paperboy and Parkland have helped shake his teen sensation image.
As such, Efron is a busy guy at the moment; he recently finished work on Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, a comedy co-starring Anna Kendrick, Adam Devine and Aubrey Plaza. He’s also got road trip comedy Dirty Grandpa, opposite Robert De Niro, and will start work at the end of the month on the inevitable Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising. His next release is the DJ drama We Are Your Friends, which hits cinemas on August 27th.
The studio will obviously be hoping for another comedy-action hit that can kick off a franchise. Will that be the case? I guess we’ll find out how interesting people still are in the Baywatch concept, now updated, when it’s released in (presumably summer) 2017.
Source: THR