The Little Mermaid banner

Earlier this month, Walt Disney Pictures revealed a number of dates set aside for their upcoming live-action projects. Though they didn’t reveal which movie would fill which date, the studio did tease some possibilities such as Ava DuVernay’s ‘A Wrinkle In Time’, ‘Jungle Cruise’ starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and the ‘Mary Poppins’ sequel with Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda. But now it appears that another contender may have emerged from under the sea.

According to Deadline, the House of Mouse is considering a live-action adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Little Mermaid.’ The report says that the project is still in the early stages of development, but talks with “major producers, including some with a strong connection to the studio” have taken place. However, it’s not much of a surprise that they would consider revisiting the animated classic that brought us memorable tunes such as ‘Under the Sea’ and ‘Part of Your World’. The 1989 film started a golden age of animation for Disney that included ‘Aladdin’, ‘The Lion King’, and ‘Beauty and the Beast’, the last of which recently set a new record for the most views in the first 24 hours when the teaser for it’s upcoming live-action adaptation starring Emma Watson dropped earlier this week.

If Disney does decide to move forward with this film, they’ll meet some competition in the form of an existing project at Universal from ‘Love Actually’ and ‘Notting Hill’ writer Richard Curtis directed by up and coming filmmaker Rebecca Thomas that stars Chloe Grace Moretz. But based on their recent track record of live-action movies including ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, ‘Captain America: Civil War’, and ‘The Jungle Book’, they’ll be just fine if they get the right people involved. 

Do you want to see a live-action version of ‘The Little Mermaid’ from Disney? Who would you like to see involved in the project? And do you think that it could jump the line and fill one of the vacant release dates that the studio shared earlier this month? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments below.

horizontal lineDespite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences and puns far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.