The Little Mermaid (upcoming film)

The Little Mermaid is an upcoming American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall from a screenplay by Jane Goldman and David Magee. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, it is a live action adaptation of the 1989 animated film of the same name, which is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the same name. Serving as producers are Marshall, John DeLuca, Marc Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the latter whom will co-write new songs for the remake with the original film's composer/co-songwriter, Alan Menken, with Menken also returning to compose the score. The film will star Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy with Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina in voice roles.

Cast

 * Halle Bailey as Ariel, a mermaid princess, King Triton's youngest daughter and Ursula's niece who is fascinated with the human world. Director Rob Marshall said that "[Bailey] possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role", and that the film is about "[Ariel] finding her voice […] And that immediately just felt like an interesting, timely piece that resonated with [the production crew]". Bailey said that she wanted to bring "freshness" to the character. She also said that "[i]t's amazing that the directors have been so forward in asking [her] to show [her] true self… that's been a really fun growing experience". Co-star Daveed Diggs said that the remake will give "some more power" to Ariel than the original film.
 * Jonah Hauer-King as Eric, a human prince with whom Ariel falls in love after saving him from drowning, while he becomes determined to find Ariel.
 * Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, a sea witch, King Triton's sister and Ariel's aunt whom Ariel makes a deal with to become a human, which is secretly part of Ursula's plan to take over Atlantica.
 * Javier Bardem as King Triton, Ariel's overprotective father, Ursula's brother and the king of Atlantica, who is prejudiced towards humans.
 * Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian, a loyal crab and King Triton's trusted servant who watches over Ariel.
 * Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder, an anxious yet noble tropical fish who is Ariel's best friend.
 * Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle, a dim-witted diving bird and a friend of Ariel's, to whom she provides inaccurate descriptions of any object Ariel finds. The character will be portrayed as a female diving bird instead of a male seagull as in the original in order to feature the character in underwater scenes.

Additionally, Noma Dumezweni, Jessica Alexander, Russell Balogh, Adrian Christopher, and Emily Coates have been cast in undisclosed roles.

Development
On May 25, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Disney is in early development for a live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid. On August 16, 2016, it was announced that Lin-Manuel Miranda, a fan of the original film, will co-produce the film with Marc Platt. Studio veterans Lindsay Lohan and Chris Evans expressed interest in starring in the adaptation.

On December 6, 2017, it was reported that Rob Marshall was being courted by the Walt Disney Company to direct the film, while Jane Goldman will serve as screenwriter. On December 5, 2018, Marshall revealed that he, along with John DeLuca and Marc Platt were hired to begin developing the project for film adaptation, and said that "John and [Marshall] have begun our work trying to explore it and figure it out", as he felt that "it's a very complicated movie to take from animation to live-action. Live-action's a whole other world so you have to be very careful about how that's done, but so we're starting the exploration phase". Later in December, Marshall was officially hired as director for the film. During an interview on December 21, 2018, Marshall revealed that the film is in very early stages of development, stating that the studio is trying to explore ways to translate the original film's story into live-action. On July 3, 2019, David Magee, who previously wrote the screenplay for Marshall's Mary Poppins Returns, was revealed to have written the script with Goldman. On February 10, 2020, Miranda revealed that rehearsals for the film had already begun.

Casting
On June 28, 2019, it was announced that Melissa McCarthy was in talks to play Ursula in the film. The next month, Jacob Tremblay (as the voice of Flounder), Awkwafina (as the voice of Scuttle), Halle Bailey (as Ariel), and Javier Bardem (as King Triton) joined the cast while Harry Styles was considering the role of Prince Eric. However, Styles was later revealed to have turned down the part.

In October, Daveed Diggs, who previously worked on Miranda's musical Hamilton, joined the cast as the voice of Sebastian the crab. In November 2019, it was reported that Jonah Hauer-King had been cast as Eric. Cameron Cuffe was also in the running for the role, before Hauer-King was cast.

On February 18, 2020, McCarthy confirmed her casting as Ursula during an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show: "I play Ursula, the sea witch. It is so fun, we're just in rehearsals. It's been an absolute blast. Stepping into the world of Rob Marshall, it's like a fever dream, I just went to London for a week, I was like, 'I don't get to go to dance camp for a week.' All day he's like, 'Do you want to slide down this 40-foot clam shell?' I'm like, 'Yes! Of course I do. What are you, crazy?' It's been wildly creative."

In July 2020, it was announced that Kacey Musgraves was considered for the part of Vanessa (Ursula's human form), but she turned down the role. In October 2020, actress Emily Coates joined the film in an undisclosed role. In December 2020, Disney officially announced seven principal actors while also debuting the film's official logo.

Casting controversy
The casting of Bailey as Ariel came under a polarized response on social media. By July 5, 2019, the hashtag #NotMyAriel was reported to have become the number-one tweet trending on Twitter following the announcement of Bailey's casting. On July 6, 2019, Disney released a statement defending Bailey's casting. On July 15, 2019, a poll revealed that Bailey's casting was met with a mostly positive response. Jodi Benson, Ariel's original voice actress, also defended Bailey's casting, by arguing that "[t]he most important thing is to tell the story" and that "the spirit of a character is what really matters". In an interview on August 12, 2019, Bailey said that "[she doesn't] pay attention to the negativity", while Auliʻi Cravalho, who played Ariel in a musical presentation as a part of The Wonderful World of Disney, expressed excitement at watching Bailey's portrayal of the character. Brandy, the first black woman to play Cinderella onscreen in the racially diverse 1997 television film of the same name, and Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in The Princess and the Frog, also both praised the casting of Bailey.

Filming
Principal photography was originally scheduled to begin in April 2020, in London. However, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 29, 2020, Jacob Tremblay began recording his lines for the film. Filming was scheduled to re-commence on August 10, 2020. However, it was delayed yet again to November/early-December 2020 in order to accommodate Melissa McCarthy's production schedule for the Hulu miniseries, Nine Perfect Strangers. In December 2020, McCarthy stated that she would hopefully begin filming the movie in January 2021. During an interview at the end of January 2021, Javier Bardem confirmed that filming had officially begun at Pinewood Studios in Iver, England. That same month, Daveed Diggs discussed the large amount of work he had to do when it came to preparing for and recording dialogue for the role of Sebastian.

By November 2020, Disney's new CEO Bob Chapek announced that filming on all movies that had been postponed by the coronavirus had resumed filming, and in some cases completed principal photography.

Music
On March 17, 2017, it was announced that Alan Menken, who previously scored and co-wrote songs for the original film, would return as the film's composer and to write new songs alongside producer Lin-Manuel Miranda. Three months later, Menken stated that his work on the film's music had put on hold due to Miranda and Marc Platt's schedules with Mary Poppins Returns. On May 20, 2019, Menken stated that The Little Mermaid would be his next project, following the release of the live-action adaptation of Aladdin, and on July 9, he and Miranda started working on new songs for the film. On replacing the original film's lyricist, the late Howard Ashman, Miranda felt that "[he] will definitely fall short" to Ashman's work, arguing that "no one can write like him". On September 17, 2019, it was reported that Menken and Miranda wrote a new song for Prince Eric, which Menken confirmed on October 11, 2019, and revealed that he and Miranda wrote "like four or five new songs" for the film, including a new song for Eric and Ariel, a new song for King Triton as well as a song for Scuttle. On January 16, 2020, Halle Bailey confirmed that the song "Part of Your World", from the original film, will appear in the remake. On February 10, 2020, Miranda revealed that he and Menken wrote four new songs for the film. On March 22, 2020, Menken revealed that the songs for the film have already been recorded. On February 19, 2021, Menken said that the new songs would be a "blend" of his and Miranda's styles. He elaborated that the songs would feature "some rapping" in the vein of Miranda's previous works, as well as a closer style to his usual work.