Sofia Coppola’s abandoned Little Mermaid is already one of the greatest movie ‘what ifs’ of the 21st century. We do know that The Beguiled director had planned to cast Uma Thurman’s daughter in the lead, but when she faced resistance from the studio — who wanted to go with a better known actress — she left the project, realising her vision would always be compromised. Recently, speaking at New York City’s Film Society of Lincoln Center, Sofia shed some light on her vision and explained that her clashes with the studio went beyond casting.
“It became too big of a scale. I wanted to shoot it really underwater, which would have been a nightmare. But underwater photography is so beautiful. We even did some tests. It was not very realistic, that approach.” she reflected. Realising her vision would require an enormous budget, the project soured. She explained “it just becomes more about business, or business becomes a bigger element than art.”
For the record, her picture would have been much darker than the several offerings we’re currently seeing roll out; more focused on the original tragic tale. “It wasn’t the Disney version, it was actually the original fairy tale. I thought it would be fun to do a fairy tale, I’ve always loved fairy tales, so I was curious about doing that.”
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Text Wendy Syfret
Image via Flickr user San Francisco Foghorn