Paramount Pictures has set Jeremy Garelick to rewrite and direct Baywatch, a big screen comedy based on the syndicated series about lifeguards who patrol a beach in California, says Variety.
The film marks Garelick’s directing debut. The writer, who most recently did an uncredited rewrite of The Hangover with Todd Phillips, has written Murray at Large for Phillips to produce and possibly direct at Warner Bros., and also scripted The Insane Laws at Columbia
DreamWorks bought the remake rights in 2005 and got a script by Jay Scherick and David Ronn that was heavy on action. Though he never saw the original TV show, Garelick saw an opportunity to turn it into broad comedy.
“It felt like the template to do a movie that was similar to ‘Stripes’ and ‘Police Academy,’ the comedies I loved growing up,” Garelick said.
The script now focuses on two unlikely lifeguard candidates trying to catch on alongside the buff bodies that will be as abundant in the film as they were in the TV series.
