Channing Tatum and Jillian Bell apparently had so much fun together on 22 Jump Street that they’re teaming up for another ‘80s revival. This time, the man we lovingly refer to as C-Tates will be starring in a remake of the 1984 Ron Howard comedy Splash, which starred Tom Hanks as a normal guy whose life is flipped upside down when he falls in love with a mermaid played by Daryl Hannah. Except Tatum won’t be playing the normal guy. Instead — TWIST! — he will be taking on the role of the mermaid, because that’s just the unique thing to do, folks.
According to Deadline, Bell came up with the idea for the gender-swap remake and Marja-Lewis Ryan (Liked) will handle the script. The announcement comes at a time when we’re finally winding down from relentless and even political Ghostbusters controversy, so we can certainly expect to see a lot of people tweeting jokes about their childhoods being ruined now that a man is playing a woman’s role. There will also probably be genuinely upset people who don’t understand why Tatum has to shed his shirt to play a rippled-and-sexy sea creature instead of a woman, since this was a role made famous by a woman in the first place.
To those people, please make sure that your outrage is sincere and even more ridiculous than the Ghostbusters stuff, because the bar is high.
