Channing Tatum is set to play a male mermaid in a gender-flipped remake of the hit 1980s romantic comedy Splash.
According to Deadline, The Magic Mike XXL star has been tapped for the role that actress Daryl Hannah made famous in the 1984 film.
The Splash remake co-stars comedian Jillian Bell, who is set to take over the part played by Tom Hanks in the original film.
Bell will also produce the Splash remake. The actress took to Twitter Monday to share the news:
In the original film, Tom Hanks plays a man who reunites with a mermaid (Daryl Hannah) who had saved him from drowning when he was a young boy. The film became a modest hit for Touchstone Pictures and the screenplay snagged an Academy Award nomination.
The remake, however, will see the gender roles reversed.
Deadline reports that Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture is producing the reimagined flick while Ron Howard, who directed the original, is also set to produce.
Tatum also holds a producer credit on the remake. The gender-swapped take on Splash was reportedly Bell’s idea. She and Tatum worked together on the 2014 hit sequel 22 Jump Street.
The updated Splash follows on the heels of another 80s film recently re-fashioned with a gender-flipped twist, after the female-led Ghostbusters reboot launched earlier this summer.
Tatum is currently filming Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the sequel to the Mathew Vaughn-directed 2014 blockbuster Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson
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