Musician-actor Harry Styles has entered talks to play Prince Eric in Disney's live-action remake of its animated feature, Melissa McCarthy as the sea witch Ursula.
A live-action retelling of Disney's animated 1989 feature (itself, adapted from Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale), The Little Mermaid is being directed by Rob Marshall from a script by his Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina are set to voice the respective characters.
According to in the running to play young Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's biopic about the iconic American musician. That said, Variety's Justin Kroll is cautioning that his deal for Little Mermaid is far from done and Styles might be on the fence about the role for now.
While Eric doesn't sing in the animated Little Mermaid, that could change in the live-action movie. Disney's Broadway stage musical adaptation of the 1989 film actually gave Eric a pair of solo numbers, so there's already a precedent for that. It's also known that Aladdin added a number for Jasmine titled "Speechless"). That would certainly explain why the project is pushing to cast a singer (like Styles) to play Eric.
If nothing else, musical theater fans should be pleased to see that Disney has started to cast more experienced singers in their live-action remakes of late. The live-action retelling of Beauty and the Beast specifically was criticized for using too much auto-tune during its musical numbers, and it would be a real shame if The Little Mermaid's lovely, Oscar-winning tunes received a similar treatment. Thankfully, "Part of Your World" is definitely in safe hands thanks to Bailey, and it's fair to presume that Styles (should he sign on) won't have a problem handling whatever melodies Marshall and his team throw in his (One) direction, either. (Sorry, had to be done.)
