The long in-development remake of the 1984 Touchstone Pictures hit Splash is finally seeing some progress, as Sarah Rothschild has been tapped to write the latest draft of the screenplay, according to Deadline.
What’s Happening:
- The Splash remake has been in-development since at least 2016, with 22 Jump Street’s Jillian Bell attached to star.
- Sarah Rothschild, writer of Netflix’s Sleepover, has now been tapped to write the latest draft of the film for Disney/Imagine/Free Association.
- Marja-Lewis Ryan wrote an earlier draft of the Splash remake.
- The original Splash in 1984 was a huge hit for Disney at a near $70M stateside, the first of its adult-demo features released at the time under its Touchstone label, and the first major hit for director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, which led to the creation of their Imagine in November 1985.
- The original starred Tom Hanks and Darryl Hanna as a man and a mermaid, respectively, who fall in love after being reunited years after she saved his life as a boy.
- The success of Splash reportedly led to then Disney CEO Michael Eisner renaming the in-development Song of the South-themed log flume attraction for Disneyland to Splash Mountain.