Logo text

Disney is diving into a series adaptation of the 2006 mermaid movie Aquamarine.

Disney+ and the Disney Channel have ordered a pilot for the project. Emma Roberts, one of the stars of the movie, is an executive producer and will guest star in the pilot, reprising her role as Claire. The movie’s director, Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, is set to helm the pilot from writer Sarah Watson (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Bold Type). They also exec produce, along with Susan Cartsonis, the film’s producer.

The pilot will center on a teenager named Coral, who has recently moved to a seaside down. “She begins unraveling the truth behind her mother’s disappearance — and discovers her mother was a mermaid, awakening magical powers in Coral just as secrets beneath the waves threaten to surface,” the show’s logline reads.

Aquamarine was released in March 2006 by 20th Century Fox (which is now part of Disney). Sara Paxton played the title character, a mermaid who enlists the help of two teenage girls (Roberts and Joanna “JoJo” Levesque) to help prove to her father that true love exists and thus avoid an arranged marriage. The movie earned moderately positive reviews but was not a huge box office hit, but over the years it become something of a cult favorite.

John Quintance and Jessica Bendinger wrote the screenplay for the film, which was based on a young adult novel by Alice Hoffman.

Subscribe Sign Up