Rumor Control: The Live-Action Adaptation of “The Little Mermaid”

by · March 21, 2014

As part of MuggleNet’s 2013 April Fools’ Day festivities, we created a fictional news story announcing that Emma Watson would be starring in a live-action version of The Little Mermaid. Along with some help from Photoshop, we fooled a few readers and had fun imagining what a live-action version of this classic story starring Emma Watson might look like.

We were amused this February when our fake story popped up as a rumor around the Internet, although some attentive news outlets traced the rumor back to us, debunking the rumor once and for all – or so we thought!

In the past couple of days, reputable outlets such as Deadline and the Los Angeles Times have been reporting that director Sofia Coppola (who helmed The Bling Ring, starring Emma Watson) is in talks to direct a live-action version of – you guessed it – The Little Mermaid. From Deadline:

“Sofia Coppola is negotiating to direct The Little Mermaid, a live-action version of the classic Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale for Universal Pictures and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Caroline Thompson of Edward Scissorhands fame is rewriting the script, about the mermaid willing to make a Faustian bargain to live on land after she falls in love. Previous drafts were done by Fifty Shades of Grey scribe Kelly Marcel and Shame scribe Abi Morgan, and Joe Wright was at one time eyeing this to direct.”

At first we were worried that this was just another rumor popping up, but the fact that the story’s been out there a couple of days without being officially debunked, plus the fact that it’s being reported by credible sources is starting to make it look like it’s true.

However, some of these reports are starting to include a familiar-sounding detail – that Emma Watson will star in Sofia Coppola’s adaptation. As of yet, there is no credible source linking Emma to this new live-action version, so beware of any post claiming this is true.

We’ll let you know if there are any further developments on Coppola’s adaptation – or Emma’s involvement. In the meantime, we’ll just bask in the fact that we probably gave Universal Pictures the idea!

Jessica J.

I've been making magic at MuggleNet since 2012, when I first joined the staff as a News intern. I've never wavered from the declaration in my childhood journal, circa October 2000: "I LOVE Harry Potter! If I clean my room, my mom says she'll make me a dinner a wizard would love!" Proud Gryffindor; don't hate.