The Little Mermaid

McCarthy would star as the villain in Disney’s next live-action remake of an animated classic

And in today’s least shocking news item, Disney wants a white dude to direct an upcoming live-action remake of a classic animated movie. The studio has reportedly made Rob Marshall their top pick to helm The Little Mermaid, based on their 1989 animated adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale. Marshall, who previously directed Into the Woods and the forthcoming Mary Poppins Returns for the studio, is said to be taking the holidays to mull it over.

Live network musicals are still pretty hit and miss, and some don’t get the chance to have their voices heard. Case in point, The Little Mermaid will remain under ABC for the time being, cancelling October plans for a live adaptation.

While it’s been a few years since we last saw Lindsay Lohan in a feature film, that doesn’t mean the former Disney wunderkind hasn’t been busy. Not only has Lohan popped in for a handful of guest appearances on shows like Two Broke Girls and Eastbound & Down, she’s also been hard at work on her big screen comeback, The Shadow Within, a supernatural thriller about a private investigator who is looking into the death of her werewolf father. It may not compare to her previous heights as a child actress, but it’s a living. Not everybody gets to be a movie star.

Over nearly 80 years, the 56 feature films from Walt Disney Animation Studios have become beloved and instantly recognizable their iconic fairy tales, memorable comic-relief sidekicks, terrifying villains, and some of the greatest songs in cinema history. This week heralds the release of Disney’s latest animated film, Moana, which boasts songs co-written by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. So there’s no better time to compile a list of the 25 best songs in animated Disney history — with a couple of important pre-list caveats. First, to avoid overloading the list with songs from only a few films, each movie here could only be represented by a maximum of two songs. Second, this list has films in the official Disney animation canon only, so nothing from Pixar or even The Nightmare Before Christmas. With that in mind, here’s the list!

Chloe Moretz has handily avoided becoming another child actor-turned-cautionary tale, and though she’s wildly talented, her roles in recent years have been — with a few exceptions — mostly underwhelming. That’s not to say that she hasn’t been an interesting performer to watch; just that there’s a discrepancy in quality between Moretz’s skills and some of the films she’s chosen. The actress’ schedule has remained consistently busy since her breakout role in Kick-Ass, but according to Moretz, it may be time to take a step back.

It was honestly surprising that it took Disney so long to add The Little Mermaid to their growing list of live-action remakes, and although it was announced a bit later than the rest of the studio’s projects, it may be a bit closer to happening than we thought. Today brings word that Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda will work on the music for the live-action retelling of Disney’s animated classic, collaborating with original composer Alan Menken.

Disney’s live-action remakes have become just as inevitable as death and taxes — not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, considering how well The Jungle Book turned out (on the other hand, there’s that whole Alice in Wonderland thing…). And like that project, the studio may once again be setting up a competing live-action remake, this time turning their sights to The Little Mermaid.

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.

Our dreams were crushed earlier this year when Sofia Coppola exited Working Title’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid, and while we’ll never get to see what dreamy magic Coppola may have worked on her adaptation, it’s still happening without her — but now it has a leading mer-lady with Chloe Moretz diving in for the live-action update on the classic fairy tale, with a screenplay by Richard Curtis.