Melissa McCarthy Could Play Ursula In The Live Action ‘Little Mermaid’
Melissa McCarthy is currently in talks to play Ursula the Sea Witch in the new live-action iteration of The Little Mermaid, with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda and directed by Rob Marshall.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Little Mermaid is the next Disney film in line to get a remake into a live action film with actors rather than animation. Aladdin was first. Then The Lion King was transformed but into realism and not into live action per se.
McCarthy as the ultimate Disney villain could make the film even more attractive to fans of the mermaid tale. Alan Menken won best original song and score for the original movie in 1989, and will team with Miranda for the music in the new film.
The animated film was the retelling of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a mermaid named Ariel who yearns to be human after she falls in love with Prince Eric. She makes a deal with the sea witch, Ursula, who grants her wish but takes her voice in exchange.
McCarthy is represented by CAA, and will next appear in New Line’s drama The Kitchen and in the action comedy Superintelligence with late-night host, James Corden.
THE LITTLE MERMAID Casting MELISSA MCCARTHY as URSULA for Live-Action Film – https://t.co/7yY2Lm8hA9 pic.twitter.com/0cOA65uLWL
— ComicBook NOW! (@ComicBookNOW) June 28, 2019
Variety is reporting that McCarthy has not yet inked the deal to play Ursula in the latest version of The Little Mermaid, but she is in early talks to play the bombastic sea witch in the Disney film. If McCarthy accepts the role, she will get the chance to prove her chops as a songstress with the sea witch theme, “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” This would be one of the actor’s first family-friendly roles in some time.
Melissa McCarthy continued to branch out when she dropped in on Saturday Night Live to play the former press secretary Sean Spicer to the amusement of Twitter, says The Inquisitr. Initially, fans weren’t sure that it was McCarthy as Spicer, holding raucous press conferences on the late-night comedy show. However, after hearing her voice, it was clear they were listening to the comedian who starred in Bridesmaids and Gilmore Girls.
On her first appearance as Spicer on SNL, McCarthy played the role as angry with the press and with the country, demanding an apology.
“Apologize to me! That apology is NOT accepted! I’m here to swallow gum and take names.”
The audience roared as McCarthy’s Spicer character chastised the press over and over again.
“Before we begin, I know that myself and the press have gotten off to a rocky start. All right, all right, all right, all right. In a sense, when I say ‘rocky start,’ I mean it in the sense of Rocky the movie. Because I came out here to punch you! In the face!”
