Variety reports that Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy is in early talks to play the role of Ursula in Walt Disney Pictures’ live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. McCarthy can next be seen in New Line Cinema’s graphic novel adaptation The Kitchen. Pat Carroll originally voiced the character in the 1989 original film.
Mary Poppins Returns director Rob Marshall will helm the film which features a script by David Magee (Life of Pi, Mary Poppins Returns). No stranger to musicals, or working for Disney, Marshall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his feature film debut, Chicago. Since then, he’s helmed the likes of Memoirs of a Geisha and Nine. Marshall has also made his last three films at Disney, including Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Into the Woods, and the Poppins sequel.
For their new version of The Little Mermaid, Disney is pairing Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken to create a blend of old and new songs that will be featured in the upcoming big screen version. Miranda and Marshall also worked together on Mary Poppins Returns.
Disney’s animated The Little Mermaid made over $211 million at the box office and became a bestseller on home video, popularizing songs like “Under The Sea” and “Part of Your World.” Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s Danish fairy tale, it tells the story of a 16-year-old mermaid princess named Ariel who longs to be human.
(Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)
