Gender-swapped ‘Overboard’ remake to star Anna Faris, Eugenio Derbez
Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez are going overboard.
MGM has announced a new remake of the 1987 rom-com Overboard, which starred Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, and Edward Herrmann. The late Garry Marshall directed the original film, which starred Hawn as a spoiled heiress and Russell as the working-class carpenter who tricks her into thinking she’s his wife. (Watch the trailer for the original Overboard above.)
The new version is keeping the classic opposites-attract plot, but with a gender-swapped twist: Derbez will play a snooty playboy from one of Mexico’s wealthiest families. When he develops amnesia after falling off his yacht, a single, working-class mom (Faris) convinces him that he is actually her husband.
Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher are set to write and direct the new film, with production expected to begin in May in Vancouver. MGM is producing alongside Pantelion Films and 3Pas Studios.
Faris has starred on the CBS comedy Mom since 2013, and she also hosts the podcast Anna Faris is Unqualified. She previously starred in films like The House Bunny and What’s Your Number, and Overboard will mark her return to film. Derbez is known for directing, co-writing, and starring in the Spanish-language box office smash Instructions Not Included, and he’ll next appear in the comedy How to Be a Latin Lover.
Faris hasn’t been shy about her love for the original film, and last year, she spoke to EW’s Henry Goldblatt and Jessica Shaw about why it’s her all-time favorite “sick day movie.”
“I’m just crazy about that movie,” she said at that time. “I love Goldie Hawn. Her performance is so sublime and delicious — and the chemistry with her and Kurt!”