EXCLUSIVE: The rebooted Baywatch will “remind the broader Hollywod community that there are enormous advantages to shooting in Los Angeles,” according to its showrunner.
Matt Nix claimed “we forget at our peril” that the TV and movie biz began in Hollywood, coming as debate continues to rage over the number of shows relocating production, although a new federal tax credit could help things. Baywatch itself secured a $21.1 million (40%) tax credit late last year from the California Film Commission.
Fox and Fremantle‘s Baywatch, arguably one of the most quintessentially L.A. shows of all time, is set to make a splash at MIPCOM Cannes this year and Nix was speaking to Deadline in the days leading up to the market alongside stars Stephen Amell and Noah Beck.
“As much as Miami Vice shaped one generation’s idea of Miami, Baywatch created a vision of Los Angeles and California,” said Nix, who says he boarded the long-gestating project when first responders were spending almost every day visiting his house amid last year’s L.A. wildfires.
Nix said shooting in L.A. was “a major part of what drew me to the project.” “I’ve been very aware of the challenges facing production in Los Angeles, but I’d love to remind the broader Hollywood community that there are also enormous advantages to shooting here,” he added. “People say it’s impossible to shoot in L.A., but it isn’t.”
There remain natural advantages to shooting in Hollywood, Nix added. “Los Angeles is where the actors are. We can bring in great guest performers who might not travel across the country for a single day’s work’,” he added. “The other thing is that the beach is the beach. If you’re shooting a film set in the mountains, you go to the mountains because that’s where they are. Los Angeles has the same kind of essential location value.”
Nix is a native Californian who jumped at the chance to spend some time shooting there. Things were different for Amell, who was born in Canada yet distinctly remembers going to his seventh grade class the day after CJ Parker’s (Pamela Anderson) world-famous running sequence and “everyone was talking about the thing they had seen on television the night before.”
Amell thinks Baywatch’s lasting impact cannot be understated and says it is “one of the main reasons I eventually moved to California after high school.”
“When you watched the show as a kid in Toronto in February, you wondered, ‘Is that a real place? Can you really go there and live?’. It created this aspirational view of California,” added Amell.
He has big shoes to fill. In the rebooted Baywatch, which launches on Fox next year and is being sold by Fremantle at MIPCOM, he plays Hobie Buchannon, son of David Hasselhoff’s iconic Mitch Buchannon. In the reboot, Hobie Buchannon’s daughter returns to his life and wants to follow in her dad’s footsteps and train as a lifeguard in one of the most important beach jobs in the world.
“David Hasselhoff’s performance has endured for a quarter of a century and remains an indelible part of pop culture,” said Amell.
In order to stave off the pressure, Amell said Nix and producer Mike Horowitz “simplified it for me by saying, ‘This is a father-daughter show set against the backdrop of Baywatch‘.”
He approached the role with “three versions” of Hobi in mind, “Captain Hobi,” “off duty Hobi” and “Hobi as a dad,” a “framework that allowed me to focus on the work scene by scene and day by day.”
“When I saw the material we’re debuting at MIPCOM, it was probably the first time I thought, ‘Wow, this is Baywatch‘,” said Amell.
“There’s a massive responsibility when you put on those red shorts”
During the filming process he got to know co-star Beck, whose journey to the series has been an unusual one.
Beck made his way to acting via TikTok, where he broke out in a seriously big way during the pandemic (he is also a former soccer player).
While Beck is too young to remember the original series, he said he “understands the iconography that comes with it.”
“There’s a massive responsibility when you put on those red shorts,” he added. “It almost felt like putting on superhero armor every morning.”
Beck, who also lives in California, loved filming Baywatch and hopes the role can help open the acting floodgates, as he stresses that his background in content creation barely gives him a natural advantage (Nix says he didn’t realize Beck was a TikTok star when he cast him).
“I know that my following can get me into a room, but it won’t keep me there,” added Beck. “I grew up playing sports, and I missed the camaraderie of a team. I found that in acting. It takes a village, and I’ve found it a privilege to be part of such a large production. I’ve accidentally fallen in love with acting, and I hope the work keeps coming.”
Sadly Beck can’t make it to Cannes this year but Nix, Amell, co-star Brooks Nader and executives are out in full force.
Amell is positive about the future of the reboot, saying thoughts have already turned to Season 2. “But you can’t think about the big-picture expectations,” he added. “I’m focusing on the work step by step.”