As Disney continues its push to adapt all of its animated fairy tale fare again as live-action, it recently started development on The Little Mermaid. Aware that competing studios are already working on the story, the Mouse House has gone for some big guns in the music department, pairing original Mermaid Oscar-winner Alan Menken with Hamilton musical genius Lin-Manuel Miranda.
It's at the early planning stage, and indeed the company is still figuring out how much the ever-busy Miranda will be contributing. But according to Deadline, he's on board to supervise the story and will work with Menken – who co-wrote the garlanded original songs for the 1989 animation with Howard Ashman – to craft new music that can sit alongside some of the classic tunes. No director is set yet, and Disney's production president Sean Bailey is in the process of finding a writer to flesh out the new pitch for the story.
This feels like the perfect fit for Miranda, who is such a fan of the '89 film that he named his son Sebastian after the chatty crab. And he's proven time and again that he's got a flair for writing memorable music that has itself won several awards. We can't wait to see the behind-the-scenes video from this collaboration. The new assignment continues the actor-composer's connection to Disney, as he's part of the cast for Mary Poppins Returns, which will kick off shooting in London early next year, directed by Rob Marshall.
Assuming it comes to full fruition, this new version of Mermaid will face a challenge from a couple of others, including Working Title and Universal's take on the public domain Hans Christian Andersen tale. That one is further along in the process, with Rebecca Thomas attached to direct Chloe Grace Moretz in the lead, working from a Richard Curtis script.