Your Childhood Memories Are About To Get Sofia Coppola’d
The director's next film project is a surprising choice.
Following last year’s release of teen kids-go-bad flick The Bling Ring, details have just emerged of Sofia Coppola’s next movie, and it’s not the Oscar-baiting Her revenge film we were all hoping for: the director is in negotiations to direct a live-action version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Cue the jokes about the upcoming Phoenix remix of Sebastian’s ‘Under The Sea’!
The script is being penned by Edward Scissorhands scribe Caroline Thompson, based on an earlier draft by Abi Morgan, who wrote Michael Fassbender’s penis epic, Shame. In other words, all your fond childhood Disney memories are probably going to get insanely corrupted.
“This is a departure for Coppola in that her projects are usually focused on adult themes,” speculates Deadline. “She’s got kids and it wouldn’t be shocking if she wanted to please them with a movie they can see and understand.” But wouldn’t you expect Coppola to take a more mature approach with Andersen’s Faustian tale? The 19th-century original doesn’t scan as child-friendly as Disney’s, with terrifying descriptions of the mermaid girl dancing on legs that sting like sharp knives and the prince going off and marrying a different woman. I see Coppola tackling that more sombre version, with the added attraction of Strokes songs. This will be incredible.