S.S. Minnow to Set Sail in New Gilligan Movie

Warner Bros. studio has announced its plans to make the classic sitcom, Gilligan's Island, into a movie. The tale of seven castaways stranded on an uncharted desert island entertained television audiences from 1964 to 1967 and lived on in re-runs. The big screen version will retain the same basic story line as the series, but will be set in present day.

The cast consisted of the ship's Skipper (Alan Hale), his first mate (Bob Denver), Thurston Howell III, a millionaire (Jim Backus) and his wife (Natalie Schafer), a movie star named Ginger, (Tina Louise), the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells). Bob Denver was the clueless, bumbling yet lovable Gilligan.

It's hardly the first time that the series has been dusted off. There were several TV movies in the 1970s and one in the 80s, where most of the original cast reprised their roles. In 1978, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, the castways are found and try to readjust to society. All the original actors appeared in Rescue, except Tina Louise who reputedly demanded too much money and was replaced by Judith Baldwin.

In 1979's The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, the gang is back on the island running it as a resort, which was intended as a prelude to a Fantasy Island-type series for the castaway crew, but it just didn't pan out. The producers were still able to milk one more TV movie out the series' popularity: The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981). Actress, Constance Forlund played Ginger in this one.

People reports that series creator, Sherwood Schwartz, has given the nod to actor Michael Cera as his choice for the role of Gilligan, and has allowed that he thinks actress and singer, Beyoncé Knowles, might be a good choice for Ginger Grant, but who will play whom is just speculation at this point. Entertainment Weekly writer, Jeff LaBrecque, says he doesn't care who they cast as long as Mad Men's Christina Hendricks is cast as Ginger.

I think it will be pretty hard to come up with the same chemistry that the original cast had. If you don't believe that, you can look up the TV movies on IMDB and see how disappointed many fans were that even one of the cast had been replaced. Everyone had their favorites. Jim Backus as Thurston Howell was mine, but I adored Jim Backus in just about everything he was in, and even more so as the voice of Mr. Magoo.

The S.S. Minnow was the name of the ship that they were taking a "three hour tour" on when "the weather started getting rough." There's a page on a Gilligan's Island fan site all about the boats used in the TV series, and there's a page with a miniature remote control S.S. Minnow designed by Pat Tritle which is just super cool.

Sherwood Schwartz was also co-writer of the famous theme song, The Ballad of Gilligan's Island. That link goes to a youtube of the first season's theme song, which did not name the Professor and Mary Ann. They are referred to as "and the rest." Although their characters' names were added to the song by the second season, Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson often exchanged birthday cards with each other signed "The Rest." Tina Louise, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells are the only members of the cast still living. Ms. Wells was a co-creator and co-producer of the 2001 documentary, Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History.

Sources: Embedded