The 1984 Tom Hanks comedy was actually made before Imagine even existed, but working with a story from Grazer (his first story credit), Howard was able to keep the mermaid fantasy romance afloat.
HOWARD: It was Brian's original idea and a real challenge to get going. It was so important for both of us, our first real studio film. Imagine didn't exist then, but our partnership was galvanized there because it was so difficult getting that movie made.
GRAZER: We were competing with another mermaid movie what was hard for me was, it felt ridiculous, the thought of even making a mermaid movie. If you really thought about it, it seemed like it could be a bad idea.
HOWARD: Brian said to me, it's not one movie, it's several different movies. It's a romantic comedy, but there's broad comedy, and then there's a fantasy element. I just don't know. And I said, exactly! It's great!
GRAZER: Well, it took Ron to make a mermaid movie plausible. It was our biggest success at the time, and it really solidified Ron as an important movie director. It led to ten years of comedies like Parenthood, Liar, Liar, Nutty Professor and The Grinch. And then we decided to add more serious films and that led to Ransom, Apollo 13, Inside Man, American Gangster and 8 Mile. We learned you could look at the world both ways. Nutty Professor is about someone with a handicap, and so is A Beautiful Mind. One was comedic, the other serious, both had humanity. But the foundation started with Splash.
Bet you never thought you'd see The Nutty Professor compared to A Beautiful Mind! As for current projects, Howard and Grazer revealed a little bit more about the budget concerns Universal had for their ambitious adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower.
DEADLINE: Still, there were rumors last month that Universal might let The Dark Tower go. That hasn't happened but they did push the start date to early next year. Why has it been so hard to get underway?
HOWARD: The first version represented a bold attempt to fast track, because of weather concerns. It was a little more dramatic to people on the outside than to us. We'd have liked to move forward on that fast track, but it was always Phase One. There was an understanding that if we couldn't answer all the questions in a way that made sense to all the partners involved, then we would operate on a slightly more traditional timetable. Even if we go in March, that's still moving quickly for something of this scale.
DEADLINE: You've been asked to bring down the budget. By how much?
GRAZER: I'm producing it with Akiva Goldsman, who wrote it to be sensitive to cost and is rewriting it to be more so. Without putting a number on it, the cuts aren't that deep or that radical.
The last Howard/Grazer production, The Dilemma, is out on DVD now.
ยท Q&A: Brian Grazer And Ron Howard On 25 Years Together As Imagine Partners [Deadline]