Perhaps you remember last week when Terry Crews made this passionate plea: He wanted to play King Triton, Ariel’s father, in the in-the-works The Little Mermaid live-action remake so bad he published multiple Photoshops of him in the role. (One had him rocking a merman tail.) Well, this sucks for him, and for those who wanted him to play it: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is talking to someone else. The good news? That someone else is Oscar-winner Javier Bar
dem.
If this works out — and if the film hews close to the 1989 animated original — Bardem will not only have a tail but also an aggressive head of long white hair, an endless mustache, and not only a gold crown but some gold bracelets. He’ll also be tasked with being so dismissive of his princess daughter’s wishes to mate with a human hunk that she’ll surrender her pretty voice to tentacled baddie Ursula in exchange for a pair of homo sapien legs.
Bardem would (again, if all pans out) join a cast that’s coming together quickly, especially considering Disney has been trying to redo The Little Mermaid for a few years now. (At one point it was to be directed by Sofia Coppola and star Chloë Grace Moretz.) The Bardem news comes a mere day after it was revealed One Direction boy bander (and Dunkirk soldier) Harry Styles was in talks to play the prince that bewitches Ariel. Meanwhile, Halle Bailey (not Halle Berry) has already been named as the new Ariel, and Melissa McCarthy is probably playing Ursula — that is, unless Lizzo swipes it from under her. Of course, they still haven’t cast a Sebastian…
(Via THR)
