Melissa McCarthy is confirmed to be in talks to portray Ursula the Sea Witch in the live-action remake of Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’. Rob Marshall (‘Mary Poppins Returns’, ‘Into the Woods’) is directing. Alan Menken, who won Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Original Song (for “Under the Sea”) for the original 1989 animated version, is back for the remake, and is working with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who will write the lyrics to Menken’s music.
Showbiz veteran Pat Carroll voiced Ursula in the animated film, and sang her signature song “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”
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It was previously rumored that Lady Gaga was being sought to play Ursula.
Lindsay Lohan has expressed a desire to play Ariel. (Yeah, good luck with that.) It was more recently rumored that Jane Levy (‘What/If’) and Zendaya (‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’) were the frontrunners for that role, with Harry Styles (‘Dunkirk’) and Noah Centineo (‘Masters of the Universe’) being looked at to play Prince Eric.
The animated movie loosely retold the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and told of a mermaid named Ariel who yearns to be human after she falls in love with a prince. She makes a deal with the sea witch Ursula who grants her wish but takes her voice.
2015’s ‘Cinderella’ earned $543.5M at the box office, but that was just a warm up to 2017’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ which made over $1 billion. ‘Aladdin’, in theaters now, has racked up an impressive $874.2M, during a summer when many other franchises are seeing their latest chapters crash and burn. And expectations are massive for ‘The Lion King’ opening on July 19.
McCarthy received her first Academy Award nomination for her last movie, ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’. She will next be seen in the crime drama ‘The Kitchen’ which opens on August 9, and she will return to comedy in ‘Superintelligence’ out on December 20.
Is Melissa McCarthy a good choice to play Ursula?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
