Disney+ has handed a pilot order to Aquamarine, based on the 2006 teen fantasy romantic comedy starring Emma Roberts. The project, for Disney+ and Disney Channel, hails from Roberts, the film’s director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum and producer Susan Cartsonis. The Bold Type creator Sarah Watson will pen the pilot.
In addition to executive producing, Roberts will reprise her role as Claire Brown from the film as a guest star.
In the pilot, when teenaged Coral moves to a dreamy seaside town, 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 2006 movie, directed by Allen Rosenbaum from a screenplay by John Quaintance and Jessica Bendinger and produced by Cartsonis, is loosely based on Alice Hoffman’s 2001 YA novel. It starred Roberts as Claire, along with Joanna “JoJo” Levesque and Sara Paxton. In it, teenage best friends, Claire and Hailey (Levesque), discover a sassy mermaid named Aquamarine washed ashore after a storm. Fleeing an arranged marriage, she promises to grant them a wish if they can prove to her that true love exists by winning the heart of a local lifeguard. Since its release, the film has reached cult status.
L-R: Emma Roberts, Jo Jo, Sara Paxton in ‘Aquamarine’ 2006
Courtesy Everett Collection
Aquamarine was Allen Rosenbaum’s (as Elizabeth Allen) feature directorial debut. She went on to direct and/or executive produce episodes of Ginny & Georgia, Found, Dead To Me, Spinning Out and Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, among others. She’s repped by WME and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
Roberts, known more recently for her work with Ryan Murphy across multiple installments of American Horror Story, Scream Queens and American Horror Story, she’ll next be seen in the Mark Williams-directed film Hal and The Technique, from director Brian McGreevy. Roberts is repped by UTA, Sweeney Entertainment and attorney JR McGinnis.
In addition to creating The Bold Type, Watson’s additional credits include Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Parenthood and About A Boy, among others. She’s repped by Verve and Range Media Partners.