Lin-Manuel Miranda & Alan Menken to Co-Write Music for Live Action LITTLE MERMAID for Disney

Deadline reports that Disney has put in place an all-star team to write music for a live action feature adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's THE LITTLE MERMAID. According to the report, multi-Tony Award winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (HAMILTON) will team with multi-Oscar winning composer Alan Menken on the project. Marc Platt will produce the film alongside Miranda. The music will be orchestrated as "a remix of pre-existing songs" from the 1989 Disney animated classic, for which Menken won two Academy Awards.

Miranda is a huge fan of the Disney undersea fable, even naming his son "Sebastian" after Ariel's crustacean BFF in the musical. As of now, the HAMILTON creator will not be penning the script but is on board to supervise the story.

As previously reported, Miranda will star in Disney's live action MARY POPPINS reboot, opposite Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep and Ben Whishaw. Rob Marshall will direct. The recent 11-time Tony winner composed music for Disney's animated feature Moana, hitting theaters on November 23rd.

Along with Howard Ashman, Menken has scored music for such classics as Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and Aladdin. Along with Miranda's recent Tony, Grammy and Pulitzer Prize wins for the Broadway hip-hop show HAMILTON, he is also the recipient of a Tony and Grammy Award for his earlier work, IN THE HEIGHTS.

THE LITTLE MERMAID reboot will join a host of Disney live action adaptations in the works. Next March, the studio will release the Bill Condon-helmed BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, starring Emma Watson as Belle. Also on tap will be Cruella with Emma Stone in the title role, Dumbo with director Tim Burton and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, starring Misty Copeland and Kiera Knightley.

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