Sofia Coppola talks about rejecting Disney’s THE LITTLE MERMAID due to strange themes and managers

Director Sofia Coppola he is best known for directing films such as The Virgin Suicides, Lost in translation, Maria AntoniettaAND On the rocks. But she was on the verge of directing a couple of other films that might have been important to her, if she hadn’t backed out on moral grounds. She recently spoke to Rolling Stone during the press tour for her upcoming biopic, “Priscilla,” and touched on two high-profile projects that didn’t work out for her for one reason or another. The first was the final “Twilight” film, “Breaking Dawn,” which Summit Entertainment split into two films released in 2011 and 2012 and which grossed a combined $1.5 billion at the global box office. Coppola revealed that her journey with the final “Twilight” film lasted just one meeting.

“We had a meeting and it never went anywhere. I thought the whole werewolf imprinting thing was weird. The child. Too strange! But some of the previous ‘Twilight’ could have been done in an interesting way. I thought it would be fun to do a teenage vampire love story, but the last one is so over the top.”

It’s a really strange plot! I understand that I can’t get over it. Another project Coppola discussed with Rolling Stone was his live-action “The Little Mermaid,” which he developed with Universal Pictures and Working Title around 2014. Coppola had intended to abandon the popular Disney animated film and bring back history at its darkest roots. in the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. She left the project after clashing with studios over the budget needed to bring the underwater world to life, but told Rolling Stone that she knew she’d reached a breaking point with the film after a studio exec said the film would had to like older men.

“Yes, there was [a breaking point]. I was in a meeting room and a development guy said, “What will appeal to this 35-year-old man in the audience?” And I just didn’t know what to say. I just wasn’t in my element. I feel like I was naive, and then I felt very similar to the character in the story, trying to do something out of my element, and it was a fun parallel to the story for me.

Coppola told IndieWire in 2017 that his “The Little Mermaid” was not the Disney version, adding:

“It was actually the original fairy tale, which is much darker. I thought it would be fun to do a fairy tale. I’ve always loved fairy tales, so I was curious to do it… He outgrew it. I wanted to actually shoot it underwater, which would have been a nightmare. But underwater photography is so beautiful. We also did some tests. It wasn’t very realistic, that approach. But it was interesting to think about.

It’s nice that Coppola had the luxury of walking away from projects she didn’t feel connected to, or ones she wouldn’t be able to realize her full vision with. Her next film, “Priscilla,” will be released nationwide on Nov. 3.

via: Variety