Channing Tatum’s production company owns the rights to the seductive 1990 romantic drama “Ghost” and is planning to remake it.
“We actually have the rights,” the “Magic Mike XXL” star-producer let slip in a Vanity Fair interview published Tuesday. The actor was being interviewed while throwing clay with the interviewer, as one does.
The “Bullet Train” actor and “Dog” star and director, 42, added that he could potentially play the late Patrick Swayze’s role in the supernatural thriller, which was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker.
Swayze, who died in 2009, played New York investment banker Sam Wheat, who is killed and returns as a ghost to solve his own murder. In his afterlife, he tries to more fully express his love for his girlfriend, played by Demi Moore, through a reluctant medium, played by Whoopi Goldberg in an Oscar-winning turn.
The summer release solidified Swayze as both an actor and a heartthrob and forever associated a sensual clay-throwing scene with the art of pottery. The runaway hit grossed nearly $218 million at the domestic box office and $288 million internationally, placing it among the highest-grossing films of 1990.
According to Vanity Fair, Tatum’s production company, Free Association, is trying to put together the remake and will make changes to move away from some problematic stereotypes associated with the original film. (In 2020, Goldberg suggested that racism and perhaps an unenthusiastic response to the film’s mixed-race cast prevented the classic film from yielding spinoffs and additional adaptations.)
“[W]e’re going to do something different,” Tatum said, “I think it needs to change a little bit and have our …”
But the actor never finished his thought — because he was very distracted by the “very, very sexual” pottery he was making.
Representatives for Tatum and Free Association did not immediately respond Tuesday to the Los Angeles Times’ requests for comment.
The actor will be onscreen next in the Feb. 10 release “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” reteaming with “Magic Mike” director Steven Soderbergh for the last installment of the stripper saga that was based on Tatum’s early career as an exotic dancer. The film has also spawned a live show in Las Vegas and an HBO Max reality show.
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