Rebecca Thomas Frontrunner To Direct Chloe Grace Moretz’s The Little Mermaid

Looks like Working Title and Universal have found a director for their live-action adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid starring Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Let Me In).

According to The Wrap, director Rebecca Thomas is in talks to helm the project. They add, “Thomas met with Moretz this week and the two hit it off.”

Thomas is a newcomer to mainstream fair as she has made her mark with independent short and feature-lenth films, such as Nobody Knows You, Nobody Gives a Damn (2009), Electrick Children (2012), and Las Vegas, West (2015). She’s currently attached to direct Paramount’s adaptation of John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) had been attached the project, but she exited due to “creative differences.”

This version of The Little Mermaid is said to be closer to Hans Christian Anderson’s 1837 fairy tale, which the popular Disney animated film of the same name was only loosely-based. In both tales the mermaid gives up her singing voice to a Sea Witch in exchange for a human form so that she can win over the Prince. The original fable has a much darker conclusion.

Screenwriter Richard Curtis is polishing The Little Mermaid script, which has already been worked on by Caroline Thompson, Kelly Marcel and Abi Morgan.