Sofia Coppola To Direct Live-Action Version Of ‘The Little Mermaid’

March 18th, 2014

Kendra Beltran

How well will The Little Mermaid translate as a live-action movie? Sofia Coppola is hoping very well. She’s in negotiations to direct the classic fish tale.

Most of us are familiar with The Little Mermaid thanks to the 1989 Disney hit. Ariel’s red hair and every song are stamped permanently into our memories but that doesn’t mean Coppola’s won’t do great. Caroline Thompson, who penned some of the best from Tim Burton including Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, is working on the script. So it’s very likely this Mermaid will lean towards the dark side – although Ursula’s last scene in the Disney version is still terrifying.

Those of you still scrunching your face up like Mickey Mouse is the only one who can tell Ariel’s story, stop. It existed way before when Hans Christian Anderson released in back in the 1830s. So it’s open for interpretation…Even Coppola’s.

You have to wonder though what it’ll look like. Will it have the haze of The Virgin Suicides, the realism of The Bling Ring or the questionable ending of Lost in Translation? We’ll have to wait and see what she does with her version of the sea.