Universal Eyes Little Mermaid with Chloe Grace Moretz

While Disney is busy working on their projects which are live action remakes of their successful animated classics based upon popular fairy tales (such as the upcoming "Beauty & the Beast" and "Mulan"), Universal is also working on a live-action adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale "Little Mermaid" and they set their sights on Chloe Moretz to don the fins and flippers as the title character. [hit the jump to continue]

Since Andersen’s creation is in the public domain, Universal is free to tackle the tale with their own interpretation; of course, Disney is also able to bring one of their most famous princesses to life in a live-action movie should they choose to do so. But rather than Moretz acting opposite singing fish and an octopus villainess, this adaptation will probably skew closer to the original classic story which is much darker and more dramatic.

“The Little Mermaid” is an 1837 fairy tale that sees the title character living in an undersea kingdom with her mer-king father, her grandmother, and her five sisters. When mermaids come of age, they’re granted the freedom to swim to the surface and observe the world above; they then return home to share their observations with the family. The Little Mermaid gets her chance to view the surface world and soon falls in love with a handsome prince whom she saves from drowning.

Smitten, the Little Mermaid then visits a Sea Witch who offers her a potion that will grant her legs to walk upon the earth in exchange for her tongue … and the added warnings that: it will feel like she’s walking on sharp swords, she’ll never be able to return to the sea, and must obtain the prince’s true love/kiss/marriage/soul before he marries another, otherwise she’ll die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam. This leads to an odd romance in which the prince loves to watch the mysterious and mute mermaid-turned-human dance even though it pains her terribly. Unlike the Disney-fied fairy tale, the prince opts to marry another, dooming the little mermaid unless she murders the prince with an enchanted blade in order to return to her undersea life. That’s not exactly how it ends up, but the resolution has a much more spiritual and religious tinge to it rather than a “Happily Ever After” vibe.

Previously, The Little Mermaid had Sofia Coppola attached to direct but she left due to creative differences. Moretz was eyed for the role at that time, but Universal didn’t want to make it official until they secured Richard Curtis to do another draft of the script. There’s no director or release date set at the moment, but with Moretz on board, that should change soon.
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