Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: alan menken, d23, d23 expo, disney, lin-manuel miranda, little mermaid, live action disney, the little mermaid
Lin-Manuel Miranda To Score Live Action Little Mermaid With Alan Menken
Disney is going to make live action versions of every animated film they have ever done apparently. Jungle Book, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, so on and so on. They are also going to make a live action version of The Little Mermaid, with music by original composer Alan Menken. At the D23 expo today, during his A Whole New World of Alan Menken performance/show, he dropped a cool piece of news about that one: Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote music for the Disney film Moana and the Broadway smash hit Hamilton will join him in creating music for Ariel's new big screen adventure.
Miranda is becoming a Disney favorite, after working on Moana, he also has a role in Mary Poppins Returns along with Emily Blunt. Miranda seems to have a bit of a soft-spot for Mermaid: he named his son Sebastian after the character in the film. He will also be a co-producer on the film along with Marc Platt. It sounds like Menken and Miranda will co-write all of the music together, in a true collaboration that one can get excited about. Menken is of course a Disney Legend, having scored numerous Disney films and winning 8 Academy Awards over his illustrious career. The two will rework the existing music from the animated version and add more ala this years Beauty and the Beast.
I still do not know how I feel about all of these live action films coming out, I have not really enjoyed too many of them. I guess depending on who they get to star in it will make all the difference, but this one may be quite the undertaking. If nothing else, at least we know that all of the music will be good. I still listen to the Moana soundtrack all the time, and I am sure this will be no different.