SOFIA COPPOLA ALMOST MADE A LIVE-ACTION 'THE LITTLE MERMAID’

Eight years before Disney's live-action adaptation of its trailblazing animated musical The Little Mermaid hit theaters, Sofia Coppola harbored high ambitions for a different live-action version of the classic fairy tale. In 2014, Universal Pictures confirmed the Oscar-winning writer-director of Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides would helm an interpretation of The Little Mermaid that followed the original (and much darker) Hans Christian Andersen storyline. There would be no catchy songs or dancing sea creatures in Coppola's venture, which tapped Chloë Grace Moretz for Ariel alongside trans model Andreja PejiÄ as one of Ariel's sisters.

At the time, Coppola's melancholy aesthetics applied to the story of a wistful adolescent mermaid seemed like destiny incarnate. Who could be a better fit out of the (too few) famous female directors actively working in Hollywood? As fate would have it, a little over a year later, Coppola stepped down from the project. Although other directors' names floated around (no pun intended) in the years to come, this particular live-action The Little Mermaid never crossed the finish line — or even shot a reel of film. What led to Coppola's version falling into the black hole of unmade movies?

What Were Sofia Coppola’s Plans for ‘The Little Mermaid’?

Sofia Coppola's attempt at The Little Mermaid started strong. To begin with, the director was fascinated by the potential baked into adapting a fairy tale. "I thought it would be fun to do a fairy tale," she revealed during a 2017 event at the New York City’s Film Society of Lincoln Center titled An Evening with Sofia Coppola. "I’ve always loved fairy tales, so I was curious about doing that.”

Since folklore and fairy tales technically fall under the fantasy genre's umbrella, there were certainly many things in the original material for the imaginative Coppola to play with. As she shared during the Lincoln Center event, she initially aimed to film everything underwater, a commendably avant-garde move. However, once she experimented with the logistics, the idea proved too big of a challenge. In Coppola's words, "[It] would have been a nightmare."

After that initial setback, as pre-production continued, Coppola and studio executives disagreed over their respective approaches to the film. A small-budget filmmaker from her debut through to The Bling Ring, the last movie she finished before tackling The Little Mermaid, Coppola wanted to center her adaptation squarely within the indie world. Her vision prioritized creating art; she wasn't thinking about how many million-dollar figures the film could earn. Studio heads, meanwhile, had their eyes on transforming it into a potential blockbuster — no doubt hoping to capitalize on the worldwide fame Disney granted this specific fairy tale.

When Coppola stepped down, she cited the oft-heard "creative differences." The turn of phrase that handily summarizes every creative split actually seems applicable to this situation. "When a movie has a really large budget like that," Coppola shared during the 2017 Lincoln center event, "it just becomes more about business, or business becomes a bigger element than art." Examination of her work indicates that Coppola has never been a creator whose end-all-be-all goal is to break box office records.

Abandoning her version of The Little Mermaid, however, was the "most agonizing career decision" of the director's life. In a conversation with Variety, Coppola re-iterated her disappointment at the missed opportunity after a year's worth of work and stated that she wasn't the "right fit" to facilitate Universal's endgame.

Sofia Coppola’s Style Was a Good Match for a Fairy Tale

Even without Coppola and lead actress Moretz, who left shortly after the director's exit, Universal kept the film chugging along. Several director's names were attached over the years, including Joe Wright, the man behind swoon-worthy romantic epics like Atonement and Pride and Prejudice. But as we know, a live-action The Little Mermaid sans Mickey Mouse's influence never came to fruition. And with the new Halle Bailey-starring movie winning audiences' hearts in droves, it seems that Funny or Die's parody, simply entitled "Sofia Coppola's Little Mermaid," is all the world will get on that score.

On a purely visual level, Coppola's distinctly pensive atmosphere lends itself perfectly to a somber fairy tale. Her films already carry an aura of folklore: critics default to calling her bold color palettes, blue-tinted scenes, and slow-moving shots "dreamy." While that isn't the sum value of her movies, it's not an inaccurate description — just an overused one that tends to stem from sexist dismissal.

What's more, despite the frustration of Coppola centering white women of high economic class and excluding actresses of color (see: The Beguiled), her meditations on loneliness and adolescent displacement are undeniably effective. In the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, an inquisitive, kind, daydreaming mermaid trades her voice for legs so she can visit the human world, pursue a romance with a human man, and gain a soul. The trade comes at a high, cruel cost. Before the little mermaid and the sea witch make their bargain, the sea witch warns that "[with] every step you take it will feel as if you were treading upon sharp knives."

The mermaid's very survival hinges on winning the prince's love; that's the only way she can gain a human soul. Mermaids might have longer lifespans than humans, but mermaids fade into sea foam when they die. No afterlife exists for the sea creatures. Humans, however, have souls that grant them passage into heaven. If the prince falls for someone else, the mermaid will die of heartbreak and fade into nothingness like she never existed to begin with.

Unlike Disney's lovely romance, Andersen's prince enjoys the little mermaid's company but falls in love with a human woman. Her hopes and heart shattered, the mermaid turns into foam and the story seems to end with tragedy: then heavenly beings intervene, rescuing the mermaid from death. Her selflessness hasn't gone unnoticed. Her good actions are rewarded with a spot in heaven after all.

Coppola’s Storytelling and ‘The Little Mermaid’ Are Similar

Sofia Coppola's films examine many things: isolation, heartache, a longing to love and be loved, and the terrible emotional toil it takes to survive in a world that enjoys harming women. Female characters like Marie Antoinette and the Lisbon sisters of The Virgin Suicides learn far too young that despite their best efforts at navigating life the "right" way, men will want them, use them, and abandon them. Their lives are spent trapped in pretty glass cages, and nothing they do will ever suffice as "good enough." Even in their fleeting moments of joy, a fierce, forlorn pain always follows. As a voiceover recites in The Virgin Suicides, "We felt the imprisonment of being a girl."

In turn, Hans Christian Andersen's little mermaid longs for the human world but suffers in perpetuity over the mere hope of a love that isn't reciprocated. To gain a chance at the new, stimulating life she's passionately longed for, she doesn't hesitate to dance for the prince's appreciation even though every move is shuddering agony. Yet her efforts to win his affection don't elevate her in his eyes. She's a friend at best and an entertaining diversion at worst.

Since Andersen's The Little Mermaid morphs impending tragedy into bittersweet hope at the last minute, it's often interpreted as a metaphor for passing from adolescence into adulthood. And in a nice twist for the time period, the mermaid earns a human soul through her own actions, not because of the love of a man. As painful and oftentimes gruesome as Andersen's story is, there's an argument to be made that hope triumphs over adversity. As she crosses the threshold into mature adulthood, she's greeted with pain and heartbreak; but her suffering grants her a boon. Many of Coppola's films dance a thin tightrope between abject tragedy and secluded people clinging to brief glimpses of hope. Her established style and story motifs might have overlaid perfectly with an adolescent mermaid suffering in the name of love. It's a shame Coppola's vision will go unseen, as there's more than enough room under the sea for different interpretations of Ariel's legacy.

The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey is currently making a splash in theaters.

2023-06-01T15:07:46Z dg43tfdfdgfd