{"id":721578,"date":"2026-06-23T17:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721578\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:26:12","slug":"disney-mermaid-pilot-to-film-in-wilmington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721578\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney mermaid pilot to film in Wilmington"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Now in pre-production, a Disney fantasy show will be filming its pilot in Wilmington this summer. (Port City Daily\/File)<\/p>\n

WILMINGTON \u2014\u00a0Now in pre-production, a Disney fantasy show will be filming its pilot in Wilmington this summer.<\/p>\n

The project is listed on Wilmington Regional Film Commission\u2019s website currently as \u201cSalt Water.\u201d According to the Disinsider<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

A casting call was held through May<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \u2018The Summer I Turned Pretty\u2019 asks for \u2018privacy please\u2019 amid local filming fanfare<\/a><\/p>\n

Other names associated with the project include director\/writer Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum (\u201cSneakerella\u201d), writer Sarah Watson (Disney\u2019s\u00a0\u201cPercy Jackson and the Olympians\u201d), director Jesse Peretz (\u201cGLOW,\u201d \u201cGirls\u201d) and producer Susan Cartsonis (\u201cAquamarine\u201d). It\u2019s unclear if \u201cSaltwater\u201d will be similar to Rosenbaum\u2019s directorial debut, \u201cAquamarine,\u201d a 2006 Disney movie starring Emma Stone, Sara Paxton and JoJo \u2014 or Joanna Levesque, an American R&B and pop singer and actress. The \u201cSaltwater\u201d project name has been interchangeable with \u201cAquamarine\u201d among varied publications reporting on the pilot.<\/p>\n

Rosenbaum\u2019s 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\u00a0young adult novel\u00a0of the\u00a0same name\u00a0by\u00a0Alice Hoffman and has become a cult classic in the last two decades.<\/p>\n

The Disinsider notes filming of the \u201cSaltwater\u201d pilot series for Disney Branded Television will begin in August, also confirmed by trade publications Production Weekly<\/a> and ProductionList.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to spokespeople in New Hanover County and Carolina Beach, film permits have yet to be filed; City of Wilmington didn\u2019t respond by press.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaltwater\u201d is coming off the heels of another popular young-adult-series-turned-film, \u201cThe Summer I Turned Pretty,\u201d<\/a> wrapping this month. It\u2019s one of two projects that has set up production in Wilmington so far this year \u2014\u00a0the other being the popular ABC series \u201cRJ Decker,\u201d<\/a> which has been picked up for a second season.<\/p>\n

At Port City Daily, we aim to keep locals informed on top-of-mind news facing the tri-county region. To support our work and help us reach more people in 2026, please, consider helping one of two ways: Subscribe\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0or make a one-time contribution\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now in pre-production, a Disney fantasy show will be filming its pilot in Wilmington this summer. (Port City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-721578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}