The upcoming movie reboot of the famous '90s, sun-bleached TV show; Baywatch has summer blockbuster contender written all over it. The venture has recruited a suitably sex-bomb-esque cast to fill that iconic red swimwear, including action demi-god and proven summer seat filler, Dwayne Johnson. It also has an affectionately soap opera resembling plot with plenty of room for all the expected tropes the show employed - and even boasts the involvement of Baywatch legends David ‘The Hoff’ Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson.
Paramount Pictures has now backed off releasing Baywatch during a rather crowded release weekend in 2017 - opting for the less bloated Memorial Day weekend frame, a week later. Meanwhile, the first Baywatch trailer is due to hit the big screen this week and should be arriving online, ahead of then.
Baywatch ran from 1989 to 2001, and focused on the lives of a crew of very camera friendly, Californian coastal lifeguards. The show’s escapist qualities of location, drama and sex appeal, earned the show a guilty pleasure type of popularity that launched the career of many of its actors and created several tropes still parodied today - such as the bouncy slow-motion beach run.
The Baywatch movie will be a R-Rated comedy, directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) and based on a script written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Johnson is taking on the role made famous by the Hoff (Mitch Buchannon), and he will be joined by Kelly Rohrbach as Pamela Anderson’s original character (C.J. Parker). They are joined by Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, Ilfenesh Hadera and Johnson's San Andreas co-star Alexandra Daddario in key roles.
Baywatch’s original May 19th release date would have pitted the movie up agains 20th Century Fox and director Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant, as well as the family-friendly Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul; the animated sequel The Nut Job 2 from Open Road; and horror movie sequel Annabelle 2 from New Line/Warner Bros. The new May 26th release date for Baywatch will instead pit the film against Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Trailer Track is reporting that the trailer for Baywatch will debut in theaters this week attached to (appropriately enough) Paramount's new R-Rated comedy offering, Office Christmas Party. As for the film's release date: Paramount are clearly favoring the affirmed box office power of Johnson and his Baywatch swimming shorts against Johnny Depp in his fifth outing as a certain eccentric pirate (especially after Depp’s poor box office-performing sequel Alice Through The Looking Glass this year).
The Baywatch movie appears to be aiming for an amusing homage-style interpretation of the original TV series - by including the most popular characters and the original actors behind them. The R-rating suggests that Paramount will up the ante in terms of risqué comedy and material, to reflect the desires of a modern audience and fulfil the dreams of those filmgoers who have been Baywatch fans since the '90s. For more on that, keep you eyes peeled for the trailer that's right around the corner.
Source: Trailer Track
