The first trailer for the not-Disney live-action The Little Mermaid is here, and it is…something. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s original story, rather than the 1989 animated film, this movie takes place at a carnival/circus in Mississippi where the title character is being displayed.
In the trailer, young Elle (Loreto Peralta) and her journalist brother Cam (William Moseley) head to a circus in Mississippi to check out its real-life mermaid, Elizabeth (Poppy Drayton). They soon get swept up in Elizabeth’s troubles and try to help her. From the footage, it looks like Elizabeth is trapped at the circus because an evil man in a top hat has stolen her soul–and if that’s not an apt metaphor for work in the modern world, then I don’t know what is.
It also looks like the movie is set up as some sort of frame story, narrated by a grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) to her two granddaughters.
Given the general look of the trailer and its talk of “the heart of a mermaid,” this looks a little cheeseball for my tastes, but your own mileage may vary.
Written by Blake Harris, who co-directs with Chris Bouchard, The Little Mermaid is scheduled for release at some point in 2017. Universal also has live-action Little Mermaid film in the works, which was originally going to star Chloë Grace Moretz before she dropped out of the project.
(via MTV; image via screengrab from the trailer)
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