According to Deadline, Jessica Alexander has been cast for an undisclosed role in Disney’s upcoming live-action film adaptation of The Little Mermaid. The highly-anticipated film is currently in production in London and the studio hasn’t yet announced its official release date. Filming was previously delayed early last year due to the ongoing pandemic.
This project will mark Alexander’s first major film project after her breakout role in Netflix’s British teen drama Get Even which debuted last year. She is also set to star in Ruth Paxton’s upcoming horror film A Banquet starring alongside Sienna Guillory.
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Halle Bailey will portray Ariel in the movie with Javier Bardem set to play King Triton, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, and Melissa McCarthy, who will play the role of the sea witch Ursula.
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 directed 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.
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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.
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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.
