Seth Gordon to direct ‘Baywatch’ movie

Gordon is now in talks to direct Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a film adaptation of “Baywatch“.

Though initially cancelled after the first season, Baywatch found huge success in overseas, and was revived.

The Baywatch movie has been in the pipeline since 2004 – just three years after the iconic television series went off the air but it’s been running in slow motion ever since, due to the film-maker’s difficulty both to find the right story and also determine the tone for a modern-day cinematic version.

“Baywatch” is originally a series which ran from the late ’80s to 1999, featuring a group of lifeguards tasked to watch the beach and the people who frequent the venue.

The plot will centre around Johnson’s character, a by-the-book lifeguard who is forced to team up with a young hothead with a blatant disregard for authority in order to save their local beach from environmental destruction brought about by a ruthless oil tycoon. It starred David Hasselhoff and bevy of beauties, like Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra, Kelly Packard, Nicole Eggert, Yasmine Bleeth, Gena Lee Nolin, Traci Bingham, Donna D’Errico and Krista Allen.

Gordon broke out with his video game documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Gordon has previously helmed the comedies “Horrible Bosses” and “Identity Thief”.

Writers Shannon and Swift have mostly been known for horror movies like Freddy vs. Jason and Friday the 13th, but have recently branched out into comedy with films like this one and the Peter Dinklage leprechaun pic O’Lucky Day. On paper, the idea of a Baywatch movie sounds ridiculous, but all the film really needs to accomplish to be taken seriously and successful is to follow the 21 Jump Street formula.