--- title: Sofia Coppola Drops Out of Live-Action 'The Little Mermaid' description: The director is leaving due to "creative differences" canonical: https://time.com/3904993/sofia-coppola-little-mermaid/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-02T15:08:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:49:44.607Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Sofia Coppola Drops Out of Live-Action 'The Little Mermaid' og:description: The director is leaving due to "creative differences" og:url: https://time.com/3904993/sofia-coppola-little-mermaid/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5732189f14d97581/69885299e53aba2ac04ddf85/463802216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sofia Coppola attends the Anna Sui fashion show in New York City on Feb. 18, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sofia Coppola Drops Out of Live-Action 'The Little Mermaid' twitter:description: The director is leaving due to "creative differences" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5732189f14d97581/69885299e53aba2ac04ddf85/463802216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sofia Coppola Drops Out of Live-Action _The Little Mermaid_ by [Devan Cogan / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Cogan / Entertainment Weekly Jun 2, 2015 3:08 PM CUT  Sofia Coppola attends the Anna Sui fashion show in New York City on Feb. 18, 2015. Sofia Coppola attends the Anna Sui fashion show in New York City on Feb. 18, 2015.Mike Coppola—Getty Images by [Devan Cogan / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Cogan / Entertainment Weekly Jun 2, 2015 3:08 PM CUT Sofia Coppola won’t be going under the sea after all. EW has confirmed that the director has dropped out of the upcoming live-action version of _The Little Mermaid_ due to creative differences. [Deadline first broke the news](http://deadline.com/2015/06/sofia-coppola-exits-the-little-mermaid-1201435816/ "undefined"), reporting that Universal Pictures and Working Title are still planning to move forward with the film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, with a script rewritten by Caroline Thompson. The classic story has been adapted many times, but the 1989 Disney animated version is perhaps the best known version. Coppola���s most recent project was directing _The Bling Ring_ in 2013, but she’s also working on _A Very Murray Christmas_, an upcoming Netflix feature that will reunite her with _Lost In Translation_ star Bill Murray. Murray and Coppola co-wrote the script with producer Mitch Glazer, and the 2015 Christmas story will feature Murray spending the holidays with George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Amy Poehler, and more—all playing themselves. Even if we won’t ever see Coppola’s version of _The Little Mermaid_, at least we’ll always have Funny Or Die’s version of what that might look like. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/01/sofia-coppola-drops-out-live-action-little-mermaid "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3904993/sofia-coppola-little-mermaid/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3904993/sofia-coppola-little-mermaid/"},"headline":"Sofia Coppola Drops Out of Live-Action The Little Mermaid","datePublished":"2015-06-02T15:08:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:49:44.607Z","description":"The director is leaving due to \"creative differences\"","url":"https://time.com/3904993/sofia-coppola-little-mermaid/","keywords":["movies","film"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5732189f14d97581/69885299e53aba2ac04ddf85/463802216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Devan Cogan / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5732189f14d97581/69885299e53aba2ac04ddf85/463802216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sofia Coppola attends the Anna Sui fashion show in New York City on Feb. 18, 2015.","caption":"Sofia Coppola attends the Anna Sui fashion show in New York City on Feb. 18, 2015.","creditText":"Mike Coppola—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3904993/sofia-coppola-little-mermaid/","name":"Sofia Coppola Drops Out of Live-Action The Little Mermaid"}}]}] ```