Television
Queen Latifah's Gonna Be in 'The Little Mermaid'!
No, not The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid!
August 06 2019 11:06 AM EST
January 28 2022 6:57 AM EST
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No, not The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid!
Do two little mermaids make a big mermaid? Or would she just be regular sized? If one of the little mermaids stood on top of the other one's shoulders and they put on a trenchcoat and then walked into a bank, could they successfully apply for a loan? Do shells count as collateral? Gadgets? Gizmos aplenty? Just some questions to ponder on this, the morn of s'more Little Mermaid news.
Disney announced on Monday that there is going to be another live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid starring Queen Latifah and others, The AV Clubreports. Joining the previously announced live-action version of the 1989 classic animated film -- scheduled to begin production early next year with singer and Grown-ish star Halle Bailey in the titular role -- Disney will also produce a live musical adaptation that will air on ABC later this year.
According to ABC Entertainment president Katey Burke, the TV version will weave together live-action sequences with animation from the 1989 original. At a Television Critics Conference on Monday, Burke said that she's not worried about the two differently live-action adaptations competing with one another. "The timing is so different -- ours premieres in the fall, and the movie will be in theaters long after that," she said. "It's a testament to the strength of Disney IP that these classic stories can continue to have iterations that are so different from each other. Ours in particular is really built for television."
The upcoming TV musical adaptation, produced in honor of The Little Mermaid's 30th anniversary, will star Moana's Auli'I Cravalho as Ariel, Queen Latifah as Ursula, and Shaggy as Sebastian. Who will play Prince Eric? The dog who might have had a name? And what about the answer to the trenchcoat question I posed earlier? We'll just have to wait to find out.
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