The plan to remake 1987 Goldie Hawn-starring comedy Overboard has been bobbing about in the development oceans for years now. Names such as Jennifer Lopez and Kathrine Heigl have been floated, but now, the idea is to switch the genders of the main characters to give it a proper twist, with Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez on to star.
Garry Marshall's original found Hawn as a selfish, impatient heiress who fell off her yacht, suffered amnesia and was rescued by a carpenter (Kurt Russell), with whom she fell in love.
In this version – which has Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher sharing writing and directing duties – Derbez will be one of Mexico's wealthiest playboys, a man with little regard for manners. After falling from his swanky boat, he meets Faris' single, working-class mother, who convinces him that he's her husband. "The original Overboard was beloved and the only way to bring it back is to reinvent the story in a whole new way," says MGM boss Jonathan Glickman. "Anna and Eugenio are two of the most charismatic forces in comedy whose take on the material will modernize the story for a whole new generation of moviegoers." The cameras will start cranking this May in Vancouver.
Faris is currently to be found on TV screens in sitcom Mom and last had a cameo as herself in Keanu. She's also the host of the podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified. Derbez, a star in Latin America thanks to a role on long-running TV series La Familia P. Luche, also had a film hit recently starring in, directing and producing comedy Instructions Not Included.