WILMINGTON — Now in pre-production, a Disney fantasy show will be filming its pilot in Wilmington this summer.
The project is listed on Wilmington Regional Film Commission’s website currently as “Salt Water.” According to the Disinsider, an independent news site for Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar-related content, the show follows a 15-year-old, Coral, reared in Arizona with her father. However, when she relocates to a seaside town with her mother for the summer, Coral learns she is a mermaid. Over the course of the summer, she experiences typical coming-of-age growing pangs, with first loves and frenemies, but especially enduring friendships.
A casting call was held through May for the role of Coral, as well as characters named Mia and August. Simkin/Sitowitz Casting received around 13,000 submissions, though the cast has yet to be announced.
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Other names associated with the project include director/writer Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum (“Sneakerella”), writer Sarah Watson (Disney’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”), director Jesse Peretz (“GLOW,” “Girls”) and producer Susan Cartsonis (“Aquamarine”). It’s unclear if “Saltwater” will be similar to Rosenbaum’s directorial debut, “Aquamarine,” a 2006 Disney movie starring Emma Roberts, Sara Paxton and JoJo — or Joanna Levesque, an American R&B and pop singer and actress. The “Saltwater” project name has been interchangeable with “Aquamarine” among varied publications reporting on the pilot.
Rosenbaum’s 2006 film centered on two best friends who discover a mermaid washed ashore during a storm and offers to grant them a wish if they help the mermaid find true love. The film was based on the 2001 young adult novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman and has become a cult classic in the last two decades.
The Disinsider notes filming of the “Saltwater” pilot series for Disney Branded Television will begin in August, also confirmed by trade publications Production Weekly and ProductionList.com.
According to spokespeople in New Hanover County, City of Wilmington and Carolina Beach, film permits have yet to be filed.
“Saltwater” is coming off the heels of another popular young-adult-series-turned-film, “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” wrapping this month. It’s one of two projects that has set up production in Wilmington so far this year — the other being the popular ABC series “RJ Decker,” which has been picked up for a second season.
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