All of you must have heard about a classic Disney’s tale called Beauty and the Beast. Now we have delightful news for you – Beauty and the Beast have wrapped up shooting, and it will soon be ready for the premiere later this month. There have been numerous adaptations of this famous tale not only in animated form but also as a musical, TV shows in 1987 and 2012 and there is even the Meat Loaf video for “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).”
Beauty and the Beast 2017 Release Date
In the latest version, Emma Watson who played Hermione in Harry Potter saga and Dan Stevens, famous for his role in Downtown Abbey will play main characters. Disney has been toying with the idea to adapt this story since 2009 and Beauty and the Beast was planned to be the Broadway musical at first, but that has changed.
Disney had great success with Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella and Maleficent with Angelina Jolie that received wonderful reviews, and this should be the case with the upcoming story. The filming of Beauty and the Beast kicked off in 2015 at Shepperton studios, and it has just ended. The premiere of the popular story for kids will be on March 17, 2017.
Cast
As we have already mentioned, Emma Watson will be in the role of Belle, the woman who lives with the Beast in his castle. Everyone agreed with this kind of decision even Paige O’Hara who voiced Belle in the animated version from 1991. There is no doubt that Emma Watson will be splendid in her role and here you can see Belle singing in a video posted on Tweeter. She will be joined by Dan Stevens who portrays posh Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey, and he will, of course, be the Beast.
The role of Gaston, Belle’s suitor will belong to Luke Evans, who was definitely the right choice for Hobbit’s Bard. Some of the late Howard Ashman’s lyrics to “Gaston” were considered to be too “risqué” for the original movie, so this would be slightly changed in the new version. In the behind-the-scenes shot posted on Facebook, you can see the prince with great looking locks.
Josh Gad who voiced Frozen’s Olaf will now play Gaston’s servant LeFou, while Belle’s father Maurice will be portrayed by Kevin Kline. There is also the entire voice cast who will bring the Beast’s silverware and other objects to life. For instance, Ewan McGregor and Emma Thompson will be Lumiere, the candlestick and Mrs. Potts, the Teapot respectively, while Cogsworth the clock will be voiced by Sir Ian McKellen.
Plot
The 2017 Beauty and the Beast is the adaptation of the 1991 Disney animation, and the plot is expected to remain the same. The French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont served as an inspiration for the 1991 movie, so we do not expect to see many changes here.
Behind the face of the Beast is a prince who is cursed by an old woman he refused to help. He was cursed with the enchanted rose, and he needs to find true love before the last petal falls off the rose or he will remain a Beast for eternity. The household objects were also humans before, his servants to be more precise.
On the other hand, we have smart and independent Belle, who is chased and adored by Gaston, but she continuously rejects him. His father Maurice accidently find’s the Beast’s castle while he wandered around the forest, and the Beast found him. In order to save Maurice, Belle consciously offers to trade herself for her father, which leads to romance between young Belle and the Beast.
Emma Watson told Entertainment Weekly: “In the animated movie, it’s her father who is the inventor, and we actually co-opted that for Belle. I was like, ‘Well, there was never very much information or detail at the beginning of the story as to why Belle didn’t fit in, other than she liked books. Also, what is she doing with her time?’
She added: “So, we created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read instead. So, yeah, we made Belle an inventor.”
Before the premiere, you can check out two trailers – one international – both of which previews the story from slightly different perspective. Here’s one trailer below:
