Baywatch" movie.



According to The Hollywood Reporter, Efron is poised to join the flick, based on the popular '90s syndicated series about red swimsuit-clad lifeguards in California, as one of the leads. Dwayne Johnson, the other lead, is spearheading the adaptation, which will be directed by Seth Gordon ("Horrible Bosses").



THR notes that Efron's casting is the next key piece in the "Baywatch" movie puzzle, and production should start sometime in early 2016. That comes after years of stops and starts for the project, which has been kicking around Hollywood for what seems like forever.



The film, which is said to be striving for a tone similar to the recent hit "21 Jump Street" franchise, will focus on "a by-the-book and very serious lifeguard (Johnson) who is forced to team up with a young rule-flouting hothead (Efron) in order to save their beach from environmental destruction at the hands of an oil tycoon," per THR. Here's hoping that original star David Hasselhoff makes an appearance (perhaps as the oil tycoon?), too.



If all goes according to plan, expect "Baywatch" to make a slow-motion run toward theaters sometime in 2017.







Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images