The Little Mermaid Dumped By Sofia Coppola

So much for that. Famed director (and famed director’s daughter) Sofia Coppola has left the upcoming lice-action version of The Little Mermaid. Allegedly, the first lady of film has decided that her vision for the feature film didn’t match the studios ideas. Those popular “creative differences” have been cited as the reason for Coppola’s abandonment of the movie.

After Pan’s Joe Wright weighed whether to work on the project or not (and then decided on “not”), The Little Mermaid faced the same situation with Sofia Coppola.

However, some names are still sticking to the project, as Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are still into the whole idea of producing the film, while Caroline Thompson is currently rewriting the script based on the famed classic Hans Christian Andersen tale.

The tale was first transitioned onto the big screen in 1989 by Disney, in the Oscar-winning animated movie. Disney’s story follows a young mermaid named Ariel who falls in love with a human prince after she saves him from a ship wreck and then makes a tragic deal with sea sorceress Ursula to live on land.

In order to be with the prince and make him fall in love with her just a she did with him, Ariel trades her voice for a pair of human legs. Eventually, everything works out in a Disneyesque manner. However, the original tale is much darker and ends in a tragic manner, with Ariel going back to the sea after the prince marries someone else and dissolving into sea foam.

Sofia Coppola will probably focus on editing her current project, a Christmas special with Bill Murray for Netflix.

There are still no rumors on who could possibly take the now-empty director’s chair for this special project, but it would definitely be a shame if the live-action movie gets canceled completely.