Disney is currently in the process of making a live-action version of The Little Mermaid, but Conglomerate Media and Kingsway Productions beat them to it.
Based on the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale rather than the 1989 Disney movie, this film follows a young girl who discovers a beautiful, enchanting woman who she believes is the real “Little Mermaid.”
The girl’s older brother Cam is a reporter, and travels with his sister to a small town in Mississippi to find the “mermaid” in question, who is played by Downton Abbey‘s Poppy Drayton.
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The mermaid is seen swimming in a circus tank, but there’s no indication that she washed up on the shore (like Disney’s Ariel).
Drayton is also a brunette, not a redhead, a major deviation from the Disney storyline.
Shirley MacLaine is featured in the trailer as a mysterious woman with special knowledge of the Little Mermaid’s story. (Of course, at this point, no one is sure of the pair’s relationship.)
The trailer for this new live-action The Little Mermaid premiered on Deadline and many people on social media have deemed it “awful.”
The comments section is turned off on the YouTube version of the trailer, possibly in anticipation of the die-hard fans.
The Little Mermaid will be in theatres this summer.
Check out the trailer in the video, above.