Channing Tatum says he wants to remake 'Ghost,' talks life after divorce

By Stephen Iervolino

Channing Tatum is opening up about life after divorce and his plans to remake a beloved film.

The "Magic Mike" actor -- while apparently at a pottery studio with the interviewer -- said his production company, Free Association, has the rights to the 1990 film "Ghost," which he called "great," and told Vanity Fair a remake with him potentially playing the role made famous by Patrick Swayze is being explored.

In the Jerry Zucker-directed film, which won two Academy Awards, Swayze plays a man whose spirit sticks around after he's murdered to watch over his lover, played by Demi Moore, with the help of a medium, played by Whoopi Goldberg.

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Demi Moore is embraced by Patrick Swayze in a scene from the film 'Ghost', 1990.

Tatum explained that a remake would update the original film to eliminate elements that he fears could possibly be problematic to today's audience, saying, "...[W]e're going to do something different. I think it needs to change a little bit...."

The "Step Up" star also opened up about his divorce from Jenna Dewan, to whom he was married to from 2009 to 2019 and with whom he shares daughter Everly, born in 2013.

"We fought for it for a really long time, even though we both sort of knew that we had sort of grown apart. I think we told ourselves a story when we were young ... no matter how blatantly life was telling us that we were so different," he told the magazine.

"But when you're actually parents," he continued, "you really understand differences between the two of you. Because it is screaming at you all day long. How you parent differently, how you look at the world, how you go through the world."

Tatum said calling it quits with Dewan was "super scary and terrifying" in the beginning.

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Actors Channing Tatum and his then-wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum attend the European Premiere of "Magic Mike XXL" at Vue West End on June 30, 2015 in London.

"Your life just turns on its axis. This whole plan that you had literally just turns into sand and goes through your fingers and you're just like, 'Oh, s---. What now?'"

However, he called the split, "probably exactly what I needed."

"I don't think I would've ever done the work, I think, on myself in the way that I had to do the work on myself to really try to figure out what next," he said. "And really, it just started with my daughter. I just dropped everything and just focused on her. And it was truly the best possible thing that I ever could have done."

Tatum, who said he doesn't know if he'll ever get married again, said he and Everly have "become best friends" in the time they've been able to spend together, just the two of them.