Channing Tatum’s ‘Splash’ Remake Is Reportedly Happening Soon

It’s been a few years since news first broke of plans to remake the 1984 hit film Splash with Channing Tatum and Jillian Bell attached to star, but it sounds like the silence wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

According to Bell, the film is still very much in progress and may be happening very soon.

“It’s being written currently, so we hope we get to make it within the next couple years,” Bell told IndieWire. “I think it’s happening. I’m really excited about it.”

For those who may not recall, the original Splash starred Tom Hanks has a man who falls in love with a mermaid — played by Darryl Hanna. The pair had fallen in love after she saved his life when he was a child and the two are reunited years later as adults. Of course, being a romantic comedy, their love story doesn’t exactly have a direct path. Hanna’s mermaid hides her true nature from Hanks and has a limited amount of time to spend on dry land. There’s also the government agents and secret lab element to provide some drama as well.

The film, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, was directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer. Both Howard and Grazer are behind the reboot as well, via their Imagine Entertainment. In the reboot, Tatum would be taking on Hanna’s role as the mermaid/merman while Bell would be filling the Hanks role. As was reported back in 2016, the idea for the gender switch was reportedly Bell’s idea.

As for Bell’s comments, while they appear to confirm that progress is being made on the project, they don’t really provide much else. It was previously reported that Marja-Lewis Ryan would be writing the screenplay, something that Ryan confirmed herself to AV Club last year when she revealed that she was, in fact, working on the script and even had the script for the original on her desk next to her while she was writing.

News that the Splash reboot is making some progress is a bit of good news when it comes Tatum’s more long-gestating projects. Another film that’s been on the actor’s radar for a while, the long-planned Gambit movie, may end up dead in the water after the Disney/Fox deal completes, though fans might not entirely want to count that one out, either. Deadline reported earlier this month that Tatum was considering taking on directing duties for that film himself after the departures of directors Dough Liman and Gore Verbinski from the film that has faced numerous setbacks over the past few years.

What do you think about this update on the Splash reboot? Let us know in the comments below.