The State and Reno 911! duo Tom Lennon and Ben Garant have been working on rebooting the cheesy 90s lifeguard drama Baywatch as a comedy movie for Paramount since last year, and the pair spoke to Collider this week about what to expect from the project. The movie is called Baywatch: Red Tide, and Lennon and Garant have finished the script for it and are hoping to direct it soon. “It’s basically Reno 911! with sexy people,” explains Garant. They describe the movie as “a bit of an action comedy” that’s “Point Break-y.”
Lennon and Garant watched a bunch of old episodes of Baywatch to write the script and were surprised by how strange some of the plotlines were. “The plot of one of the episodes in the first season is that there’s a giant squid stealing people’s surfboards,” says Garant. “That’s a real episode.” Lennon adds, “It’s called ‘Tentacles Pt. 1’ and ‘Tentacles Pt. 2.’ It’s an insane series! They introduced the idea of a ghost in the second season.”
As far as who’s starring in the movie, Lennon says, “I don’t think we’re supposed to say who’s in it. There are rumors that a big movie star wants to be in it, which is nice.” And by rumors of a star being interested, he’s likely referring to The Wrap reporting that Garant told them Bill Hader will be playing David Hassehoff’s character, something that Hader’s representation promptly refuted.
