Universal Studios has also joined the Hollywood bandwagon of making live movie adaptions from comic book characters, fairytales and literary heroes, with its plan of adapting Hans Christian Andersen's children story "The Little Mermaid". Unfortunately, the project has been beset with various setbacks, latest of which is Sofia Copolla's departure from directing the film.
Sofia Copolla is said to dropping The Little Mermaid due to creative differences with Universal Studio. Insiders also told Variety magazine that the studio and Copolla clashed over who should play the lead role of Ariel. The director wanted to cast Maya Thurman Hawke as Ariel, but studio executives reportedly didn't think the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke was a big enough name to lead the film.
Universal Studio and Working Title producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are still pressing ahead with the project. Caroline Thompson is also onboard, writing the story of a mermaid who traded her legs for a chance at love. Thompson, a longtime Tim Burton collaborator, has written the screenplays for "Edward Scissorhands" and "The Corpse Bride", along with the "Snow White" TV movie that starred Kristin Kreuk as the titular damsel in distress.
This isn't the first setback that this project encountered. Initially Joe Wright was supposed to direct the film but also left the project to do the upcoming movie "Pan". Previous drafts of "The Little Mermaid" were also done by "Fifty Shades Of Grey" scribe Kelly Marcel and "Shame" writer Abi Morgan.
"The Little Mermaid" was lining up to be Coppola's biggest studio film to date. In 2006, she directed the "Marie Antoinette" for Columbia after breaking out with the acclaimed indie "The Virgin Suicides." Both pics starred Kirsten Dunst. The director, whose last film was "Somewhere", currently has no other project lined up though she did recently finish the Netflix special "A Very Murray Christmas," which she directed and wrote with Bill Murray and Mitch Glazer.
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