Sofia Coppola wanted to film her “Little Mermaid” movie entirely underwater, and we have so many questions

Sofia Coppola has shown herself to be a visionary director (Marie Antoinette, anyone?), and some Little Mermaid news just proved that she’s really willing to go above and beyond for her craft.

See, Coppola was originally set to direct Universal’s Little Mermaid reboot but told Variety that she ultimately pulled out because of too many creative differences with the studio.

If she HAD stayed on the project, though, it turns out that it would have been shot entirely under the sea.

“I wanted to shoot it really underwater, which would have been a nightmare," she said during a discussion at New York City's Film Society of Lincoln Center this week. "But underwater photography is so beautiful. We even did some tests. It was not very realistic, that approach. But it was interesting to think about.

Woaaah. That would have completely amazing, but also definitely would have required some real commitment.

Coppola doesn’t seem too disappointed that her vision didn’t work out, though, and added that there are challenges that come along with working on commercial films.

“For me, when a movie has a really large budget like that, it just becomes more about business, or business becomes a bigger element than art,” she said. “When it’s smaller, there’s less people involved, it’s not so much at risk, business-wise.”

The film is now being directed by Rebecca Thomas and written by Richard Curtis (the man behind Love Actually, Notting Hill, and pretty much every British movie that makes you happy cry), so we’re still really excited to see it.

Memo to studio execs, though: When the time comes, we would still very much be open to seeing the song “Under the Sea” literally performed under the sea.