Baywatch film swimming closer to movie theaters

Screenwriters Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka have been tapped by Paramount to pen a script for the studio’s feature adaptation of the cult TV show Baywatch, according to RiskyBusiness Blog.

The studio wants a Baywatch film in theaters by the summer of 2011.

The speculation is that Baywatch will be a comedic take on the show, given the history of these writers, who have a film titled The Sitter on tap at Fox with David Gordon Green directing and Jonah Hill attached to star.

The original NBC television series Baywatch ran from 1989 to 2001, and centered on a group of lifeguards patrolling a California beach.

The show exploded into worldwide syndication. I remember one news report I saw that profiled a family in a remote third world country that had this jacked up black and white rabbit ears-endowed television set that they turned on only to catch Baywatch once a week.

DreamWorks grabbed the film rights in 2004 and hired National Security writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn to adapt it.

The show’s creators – Michael & Michele Berk, Doug Schwartz and Greg Bonann – will also produce the film.

I can just hear it now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuYrRebvFHc