Lin-Manuel Miranda Teams With Oscar-Winner Alan Menken To Write Music For Disney's Live Action THE LITTLE MERMAID

Walt Disney Pictures is in the Lin-Manuel Miranda business, and it looks like they're going to try to keep that relationship going as long as possible. The studio has already hired the Hamilton maestro to help write music for the upcoming animated feature Moana, and they've cast him as a lamp lighter in Mary Poppins Returns; now Deadline reports that the studio has brought him on to work with Oscar-winning songwriter Alan Menken on the music for a live action film adaptation of their 1989 classic The Little Mermaid.

Miranda and Menken will write the film's music together (a mixture of old and new songs), and Miranda will also supervise the story (there seems to be an implication that he could also contribute to the screenplay, but there's no firm info there). A writer is reportedly being hired soon. In addition to his writing duties, Miranda will also produce the movie alongside Marc Platt, which seems like a big step up for him. He harbors a big love for this particular movie, as evidenced by the fact that he named his son Sebastian after Ariel's crab friend.

There's no word yet about when this new live action movie will hit theaters, but Universal has a competing Little Mermaid movie in the works too with Chloe Grace Moretz lined up.