Channing Tatum Grows a Tail (for a Remake of 'Splash')

Disney is beginning to develop a remake of the 1984 comedy Splash, and the studio has found its new mermaid for the project. The twist is that the new mermaid will actually be a merman, and he'll be played by 22 Jump Street star Channing Tatum. Tatum's Jump Street co-star Jillian Bell is slated to play his romantic interest in the movie.

The original Splash concerned a young man, played by Tom Hanks, who encounters the beautiful mermaid, played by Daryl Hannah, who saved him from drowning when he was a boy. The man falls in love with the magical mermaid, and she offers him the opportunity to become a merman and live with her under the sea.

The original film was directed by Ron Howard, and Howard and his production company Imagine Entertainment will produce the proposed new project.

The idea of swapping gender roles in remakes of classic films has been a high-profile issue of late, most notoriously in the case of the recent remake of Ghostbusters, in which in all-female principal cast replaced the original all-male cast. The change triggered outrage among internet commenters, along with accusations of sexism by those same commenters.The casting of Tatum in Hannah's role has not yet triggered a similar backlash.