We’ll count this as a rumor until we get confirmation from the studio, but Twitch is reporting that Justin Timberlake is being courted by Paramount to take the lead role in a Baywatch movie, based on the 1990s TV series starring David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman is on board as a producer alongside Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson, and this project has apparently been in the works for years. Read on to find out who JT would play if this deal goes through.
Paramount is looking at The Social Network star for the role of “a disgraced former Olympic swimmer who tries out for the Baywatch crew.” Sounds almost too easy for Timberlake, who (after a quick glimpse at his IMDB page) has surprisingly stuck to more dramatic fare than broad comedies. With a major studio behind a Baywatch adaptation, I’d guess that they’ll try to go a little darker and grittier with the story (since that seems to be the overwhelming trend these days). That being said, the writers have apparently offered roles in this new film for Hasselhoff and Anderson, who jogged in slow motion through the 90s zeitgeist in skin-tight red bathing suits.
We’ll have to wait and see if Timberlake joins the ranks of the SoCal lifeguards, but I can easily see this as an opportunity to cast the hottest people they can find and get them in next to no clothing for an entire movie. Get somebody like Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Kate Upton in there, and it’s game over – they’ll make half a billion at the box office, regardless of the story.
