The Little Mermaid producers face £150k lawsuit from special effects artist for on-set injury

Christine Overs, now 74, claims the 2020 injuries have caused her ‘ongoing wrist pain’

Veteran special effects artist Christine Overs is suing the producers of Disney’s 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid for £150,000 ($191,000) over an on-set injury she sustained during production.

During a recent hearing at Central London’s County Court, Overs, who is now 74, claims she had been sculpting a part of the lagoon scene on an elevated beach set at Pinewood Studios when a makeshift access step gave way.

Overs says she then fell several feet to the concrete floor and broke her wrist. She underwent surgery to fit five steel pins and a “fixator” from wrist to elbow in order to stabilise her arm.

Lawyers for the “highly-prized” artist told the court that the injuries she sustained have caused her “ongoing wrist pain”, according to The Evening Standard.

They also alleged that she was left with a “substantial level of disability” and is “less dexterous with her hand”.

“She also has ongoing hypersensitivity on the left ring and little fingers, her grip strength is poor and she suffers swelling on the border of the wrist,” they said.

At a previous hearing last week, Overs’ lawyers told the court that the injury has affected the amount of work she’s able to do.

Halle Bailey in ‘The Little Mermaid’ (Disney)

“She is still working, but just doing less work,” barrister Colm Nugent said of Overs, who had expected to continue working into her eighties in this “very specialist profession”.

Lawyers have accused the movie’s creators of failing to “provide any adequate access to the set, which led to the claimant falling from a makeshift polystyrene step and injuring her wrist”.

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While Sandcastle Pictures, the production company hired by Disney to make The Little Mermaid, has admitted full liability for Overs’ fall, it is contesting the £150k compensation she’s due.

The legal costs of a trial, which is scheduled to take place at a later date, were determined at last week’s pre-trial hearing.

The Independent has contacted Disney and Sandcastle Pictures for comment.

Released in cinemas in May, The Little Mermaid starred Halle Bailey as the popular childhood princess. The movie grossed over $564m (£ 441.4) worldwide at the box office.

It was mostly well-received by critics and currently holds a rating of 67 per cent on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey argued, however, that “a luminous Halle Bailey aside, this live-action remake stinks”, in her two-star review.

“Nice casting can’t cover up the ugly visuals and lack of creative risk,” she wrote.