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The Little Mermaid (2023 film)
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = The Little Mermaid
| image = The Little Mermaid live-action remake logo.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| director = Rob Marshall
| producer =
| screenplay = David Magee
Jane Goldman
| story = David Magee
Rob Marshall
John DeLuca
| based_on =
| starring =
| music = Alan Menken
| cinematography = Dion Beebe
| editing = Wyatt Smith
| studio =
| distributor = Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
| released = May 26, 2023
| country = United States
| language = English
}}
'The Little Mermaid' is an upcoming American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall from a screenplay written by David Magee from a story by Magee, Marshall and John DeLuca. It is a production of Walt Disney Pictures and is a live-action adaptation of the 1989 animated film of the same name, which itself is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the same name. It is produced by Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, Marc Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the latter of whom co-wrote new songs for the remake as the lyricist, Alan Menken is set to return as the composer for both the score and the songs. The film will star Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Art Malik, Noma Dumezweni, Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy, with Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina in voice roles.
'The Little Mermaid' is scheduled to be released in the United States on May 26, 2023.
Premise
Cast
* Halle Bailey as Ariel, a mermaid princess and King Triton's youngest daughter who is fascinated with the human world.
* Jonah Hauer-King as Eric, a human prince whom Ariel falls in love with after saving him from drowning, after which he becomes determined to find and marry Ariel.
* Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, a treacherous sea witch whom Ariel makes a deal with to become a human, which is secretly part of Ursula's plan to conquer Atlantica.
* Javier Bardem as King Triton, Ariel's overprotective father and the King of Atlantica, who is prejudiced against humans.
* Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina, a new character for the film.
* Art Malik as Grimsby, Eric's loyal butler and confidant, who sees to it that Eric finds the right girl to marry.
*Lorena Andrea as Perla, a new character for the film.
*Kajsa Mohammar as Karina, a new character for the film.
Voice actors
* Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, a loyal crab and King Triton's trusted servant and court composer who watches over Ariel.* Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, an anxious yet noble tropical fish who is Ariel's best friend.
* Awkwafina as Scuttle, a dimwitted diving bird and a friend of Ariel's, to whom she provides inaccurate descriptions of any human/surface world 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, Jessica Alexander, Russell Balogh, Adrian Christopher, Emily Coates and Simone Ashley have been cast in undisclosed roles.[https://deadline.com/2021/01/the-undoings-noma-dumezweni-disneys-live-action-little-mermaid-1234664675/ 'The Undoing's Noma Dumezweni Joins Disney's Live-Action 'Little Mermaid' In Brand New Role]
Production
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.
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
Studio veterans Lindsay Lohan and Chris Evans expressed interest in starring in the adaptation, while some fans wanted Ariana Grande to play the role of Ariel. Zendaya however, was rumored to have been offered the title role from late 2018 to early 2019 but continuously stated that it was "just a rumor".
On June 28, 2019, it was announced that Melissa McCarthy was in talks to play Ursula in the film. Two days after, Awkwafina and Jacob Tremblay were rumored to have been cast in the film voicing a now gender-bent Scuttle and Ariel's famous sidekick Flounder respectively, on July 1 this news was confirmed by 'Variety'.
The next month, on July 3, Halle Bailey was officially announced through Disney's official social media accounts to play the title role of Ariel, with the director stating:
On the same month, Javier Bardem joined the cast as King Triton, while Harry Styles and Jack Whitehall considered the role of Prince Eric. However, in August 2019, it was revealed that Styles has turned down the part; he revealed in a November interview with Capital FM that there were a "few things" that they couldn't work out, he also stated: "I think it's obviously going to be an amazing film, but they shoot for so long and I wanna tour next year, maybe. I haven't announced that yet, but yeah, it just didn't quite line"; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Styles' tour was postponed, and the role of Prince Eric eventually went to British actor Jonah Hauer-King.
Director Rob Marshall said 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.
In October, Daveed Diggs, who previously worked on Miranda's musical 'Hamilton', joined the cast as the voice of Sebastian the crab. By November 2019, Jonah Hauer-King had been cast as Prince Eric. Cameron Cuffe was also in the running for the role, before Hauer-King was cast; both of which had already screen tested alongside Bailey.
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.
On January 5, 2021, Noma Dumezweni was announced to have been cast in an undisclosed role. In a March 29, 2021, interview with Marie Claire Magazine, when asked about her role in the upcoming film, Dumezweni stated, "I can tell you that I'm doing it. I can tell you I'm very excited. I can tell you I had a chat with hair and makeup the other day and it was like, Yay!". In May 2021, it was reported that Dumezweni would be portraying Carlotta and that Jude Akuwudike had been cast as Grimsby. Despite Dumezweni originally being reported as playing a role invented for the remake, Carlotta was, in fact, in the original animated film. On December 29, 2021, during an interview on Facebook's 'Talks with Mama Tina', Bailey recalled being scared and nervous while auditioning for the role of Ariel.
Filming
Filming was originally scheduled to begin in London around late March or early April 2020, however, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Set photos at Pinewood Studios in London, England leaked a few weeks after the production was shut down, it showed aerial images featuring Prince Eric's ship as well as indoor images of what seems to be his castle. On July 29, 2020, based on a social media post, Jacob Tremblay began recording his lines for the film. Filming was scheduled to re-commence on August 10, 2020. However, it was again delayed to between November and December 2020, in order to accommodate Melissa McCarthy's production schedule for the Hulu miniseries 'Nine Perfect Strangers'.By November 2020, Disney's new CEO Bob Chapek announced that filming on all film that had been postponed during pandemic shutdowns had resumed filming, and in some cases completed principal photography.
In December 2020, McCarthy stated that she would hopefully begin filming in January 2021. The following 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.
Principal photography officially began at Pinewood Studios in Iver, England on January 30, 2021. Filming for McCarthy's scenes eventually began in April 2021. On April 6, it was announced that additional filming would be happening in summer in Sardinia, Italy, for a total of "roughly three months." In June 2021, production was temporarily halted due to multiple crew members of the film contracting COVID-19. Filming resumed about a week later and officially wrapped on July 11, 2021. On December 30, 2021, Bailey shared some new behind-the-scenes photos of the set, including a glimpse of her portrayal of Ariel. The actress took to Instagram to wrap up her year and shared photos of moments of shooting the film. The first photo showed the film's script, which was blurred to avoid spoilers, but still showed her character name "Ariel" in bold print. One photo showed her swimming in Sardinia's waters, while another showed the process of film-making using CGI.
Visual effects
Visual effects will be provided by Industrial Light & Magic, Wt FX, Moving Picture Company and Framestore. DNEG will provide the stereo conversion.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 been 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.
On September 22, 2021, Menken sat down with Disney's 'For Scores' podcast and confirmed that the film will feature four new songs. He also recalled that Miranda was "'daunted'" by the prospect of following on in the footsteps of the late Howard Ashman, the lyricist who worked with Menken to write the original film's songs. On November 24, 2021, in a recent interview with 'Collider', Miranda talked about his admiration for 'The Little Mermaid' and how Ashman and Menken helped shape his childhood. He stated that working on this project was a wish fulfillment for him, but that he loves Sebastian's songs so much that he could not write anything new for his character. Miranda goes on to explain that all of the songs fans know and love will still be in the film, but that Menken and he were able to find some moments to introduce original music as well. He said:
On January 20, 2022, Halle spoke with 'Stylecater', saying that she was so emotional while filming "Part of Your World". She said:
On February 17, 2022, during a podcast interview with 'Variety', Miranda revealed that one of the new songs for the live-action film will take place when Ariel is on land in her human form. He also revealed that star Daveed Diggs might rap in the film.
Release
The film is scheduled to be released on May 26, 2023, in the United States by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Novelization
Disney will release books based on the live-action remake in April 2023.Marketing
On September 9, 2022, Rob Marshall and Halle Bailey appeared at the 2022 D23 Expo to introduce an exclusive presentation of the film's "Part of Your World" sequence, which received a positive response from the attendees, who praised Bailey's vocal performance. The film's teaser trailer was released to the public the same day.Reception
Pre-release
'Variety' reported that the official teaser trailer of 'The Little Mermaid' garnered more than 104 million global views during the first weekend following its release. It surpassed recent Disney live-action releases including 'Beauty and the Beast' with 94 million, 'Aladdin' with 74 million and 'Cruella' with 68 million. After the release of the trailer, videos of Black girls positively reacting to it went viral. The trailer gained both positive and negative response from the public for casting an African American actress as Ariel. The trailer gained 1.5 million dislikes within the first two days, making it Disneys most disliked trailer as of September 2022, which garnered criticisms of social media backlash.References
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