Film News

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken Tapped for New Film of The Little Mermaid

The songsmiths will collaborate on a score for the work.

Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda will collaborate on a new film version of The Little Mermaid.
Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda will collaborate on a new film version of The Little Mermaid.
(© David Gordon)

Tony-winning songwriters Alan Menken (Newsies) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) will team up for a live-action film adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, according to Deadline.

The new film is expected to mix pre-existing songs from Disney's 1989 animated classic (written by Menken and fellow Oscar winner Howard Ashman) and new tunes. Deadline reports that Miranda's level of involvement is still to be determined, though he will "supervise the story."

With Ashman, Menken's scores also include Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and Aladdin. Miranda won a pair of Tonys, a Grammy, and a Pulitzer Prize for his musical Hamilton, and also received a Tony and a Grammy for In the Heights.