Live-Action ‘Little Mermaid’ With Chloe Moretz Eyes a New Director

Many male directors have made the huge leap between impressive indie feature debuts to mega blockbusters, but it’s rare to see a woman director handed the keys to a big budget studio film after making her indie directing debut. As more people in Hollywood have begun speaking out about the lack of women directing major films, it’s great to see that the tide is turning with at least one project: Universal’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid, which may have just found its (female) replacement for Sofia Coppola.

The Wrap reports that Universal is in talks with Rebecca Thomas to replace Coppola as director of the upcoming film, set to star Chloe Mortez in the titular role. Thomas made her debut with the 2012 indie Electrick Children, and will next direct an adaptation of Looking for Alaska, based on the novel by The Fault in Our Stars author John Green.

It wasn’t long ago that Colin Trevorrow made some misguided comments suggesting that more women aren’t directing blockbusters because they’re simply not interested in them — but The Little Mermaid is a big-budget studio project, and while it’s not on the level of Jurassic World, it’s still kind of a huge deal that a studio is plucking a female indie director to take on such an ambitious and risky (and costly) project.

There’s no lack of women who have made impressive indie directing debuts, and many of them could be great at tackling blockbusters and big franchises, if only they were given the chance like their male peers. For every Trevorrow directing Jurassic World or Jon Watts directing Spider-Man, I can name you at least five women who could do the same.

The new Little Mermaid suffered a blow with the loss of Coppola over the all-too-typical “creative differences,” but it’s awesome that Universal found a driven and passionate woman to replace her. Richard Curtis (Love, Actually) penned the screenplay based on the classic fairy tale about a rebellious mermaid who makes a dangerous bargain to pursue the human man of her dreams.