The Little Mermaid Live Action

Any news on the Live Action Little Mermaid Disney is doing? I saw Rob Marshall had been offered the job in December 2017 but no confirmation.

According to IMDB, he's been hired and they have also hired a production designer, costume designer, and cinematographer.

And according to DisneyFilmFacts, Production on The Little Mermaid is expected to take place in Puerto Rico and Cape Town Africa. And they are looking into actors of color instead of a direct adaptation of the animated film. The reported filming locations hint the new adaptation might be set in the Caribbean.

Guy Ritche was hired in October 2016 for Aladdin, started casting in March 2017 and filmed in September- Jan for a May 2019 release. Going by that casting might begin soon with filming possibly being this fall/winter? Maybe a 2020 release?

Of course, other than IMDB, none of this is confirmed. Anyone have any other news?

wonkit said: "Given the rather tepid box office for the live action BEAUTY AND THEBEAST, there may be a pause to re-think remaking animated Disney stuff in this way?"



Huh? The live-action Beauty and the Beast was ridiculously successful at the box office.

Anyway, I have heard the rumors about the change in setting and potential casting of POC and I think it is fantastic. I hope they follow through!

wonkit said: "Given the rather tepid box office for the live action BEAUTY AND THEBEAST..."

It's the 13th highest-grossing film of all time, but okay.

ggersten said: "wonkit said: "Given the rather tepid box office for the live action BEAUTY AND THEBEAST, there may be a pause to re-think remaking animated Disney stuff in this way?"

Tepid? 500M US gross - Worldwide Gross: $1.2 Billion

Tepid?

Not to mention also that the budget for the film was around $160 million. I think it was a success

This sounds like an intriguing project. The Little Mermaid is a very fun film (and subverts Disney romantic cliches more than people give it credit for), but there are plenty of flaws with the portrayal of the protagonists, and the film is still dismissed as a story about a foolish teen who gives up everything "for a man". Therefore, I really support the idea of giving Ariel's story a big new remake. A live-action version could place the focus on Ariel's relationship with Triton and her coming-of-age, whilst still keeping the charm of the original. I really like the idea of giving it a firmly Caribbean setting, and a racially diverse cast could give this version a unique feel which expands on the most interesting aspects of the original...

I'm probably in the minority here, but I like the fact that the stage version tries to fix some of the problems with the original by giving Eric a complete character arc and allowing Ariel greater agency at the end. However, the film is pretty much impossible to translate to stage, leading to many of the unwise creative choices which made the theatrical version far inferior to its source material (The final battle in the original film was awesome, but the final battle in the stage version is almost completely devoid of action). With limitless CGI, plenty of water tanks, and the opportunity to film spectacular action sequences, the new film version of The Little Mermaid could improve on both the visuals and the story of the original Disney classic...