The list of ’80s classics returning to the screen as remakes just got a little longer.
Imagine Entertainment producer Brian Grazer has confirmed that a remake of the 1984 romantic comedy Splash is in the works at the studio he founded with director Ron Howard. However, Grazer insists that the project won’t recreate the original film’s mermaid love story, and will offer a distinctly different twist on the premise.
“I’m actually going to do Splash today,” revealed Grazer during an interview with CNBC (video embedded below). “I’m actually going to do it from the point of view of … I can’t say anything about it. There’s a movie star involved, I haven’t announced it.”
The original film, which gave Howard his first bona fide hit as a director and launched Tom Hanks’ career as a leading man, cast Daryl Hannah as a mermaid who comes ashore in New York City and falls in love with Hanks’ character. Grazer’s initial treatment for the film presented the adventure from the point of view of of the mermaid’s character instead of Hanks. However, the movie was later changed to make it a love story from the point of view of Hanks’ character, a single man in New York City. This may well be what he’s alluding to in his comment about the remake.
“We’re going to do a version of that, but I can’t tell you the twist,” teased Grazer when asked if that initial treatment — originally titled “Wet” — had anything to do with the remake’s fresh spin on the story.
In theory, today’s CGI technology would make it possible to delve beneath the surface and get a look at the underwater world form the mermaid’s point of view, as the original script intended.
Movie news site Coming Soon has taken the theory even further and suggested that Grazer is alluding to a script acquired by Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment that involves a merman (instead of a mermaid) who comes ashore to win back his fiancee, a mermaid who left him for a human.
There’s no word on when we’ll know more about the Splash remake or the lead actor Grazer hinted at in the interview.
Updated 6-9-16 by Ryan Waniata: This post has been updated to clarify that the original screenplay of the film was changed to make the movie from the point of view of Tom Hanks’ character, and that the reboot may well follow the original idea to follow the story from the mermaid’s point of view.
