Robin Marchant/Getty ImagesIs Ariel going to be getting the Marie Antoinette treatment?
Well, not the guillotine part, but the Hans Christian Andersen-turned-Disney heroine may be brought to the big screen next by Sofia Coppola, who's in negotiations to direct a live-action version of the classic tale, E! News confirms.
A script has been in the works for a while, and Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands, The Addams Family) is working on the latest draft, according to Deadline.
Considering Coppola's penchant for bringing a candy-colored, fairy-tale-like-and-yet-super-hip view to her films, all of which have featured at least one major part for an actress to sink her teeth into, the intense romance about a mermaid willing to trade her voice for legs so that she can capture the heart of a human prince actually seems like a pretty good fit for the filmmaker.
Her most recent movie was the splashy, based-in-truth The Bling Ring with Emma Watson, which was praised for its slick style but also criticized, Wolf of Wall Street-style, for being almost too callous (despite the fact that it was serving its purpose, which was to depict a group of already well-off youngsters who callously broke into celebrities' homes to get their hands on fancy stuff).
Of course—SPOILER ALERT—if Coppola doesn't go for the musical Disney version but rather sticks to the original text, first published in Andersen's native Denmark in 1837, there won't be a wedding with an obsessed chef chasing after a wily talking crab at the end.
Either way, let the casting for Ariel begin! Redheads welcome, but not required.