Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)

Beauty and the Beast is an upcoming American live-action fantasy, musical film directed by Bill Condon, and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a remake of the 1991 animated film of the same name and will be written by Evan Spiliotopoulos and produced by Mandeville Films.

The script will be rewritten by Stephen Chbosky. The film will star Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Prince/Beast. It is scheduled for release on March 17, 2017.

Plot
“Beauty and the Beast” is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast’s hideous exterior and realize the kind heart and soul of the true Prince within.

Cast

 * Emma Watson as Belle
 * Dan Stevens as Beast / The Prince
 * Luke Evans as Gaston
 * Kevin Kline as Maurice
 * Josh Gad as LeFou
 * Ewan McGregor as Lumière
 * Ian McKellen as Cogsworth
 * Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts
 * Stanley Tucci as Maestro Cadenza
 * Audra McDonald as Madame de Garderobe
 * Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette
 * Nathan Mack as Chip
 * Adrian Schiller as Monsieur D'Arque
 * Hattie Morahan as The Enchantress
 * Zoe Rainey as Belle's Mother

Trivia

 * This is the first live-action adaptation of a Walt Disney Animation Studios movie that is from the Disney Renaissance.
 * Cadenza is a new character created for this remake.
 * This will be Kevin Kline's first role for a Disney film since he played Phoebus in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Hunchback of Notre Dame II.
 * Filming began in Surrey, England on May 18, 2015 and was completed on August 27.
 * Bill Condon had actors sing The Lion King 's "Hakuna Matata" at the auditions to measure their singing voices. This was how he chose the final cast for this film.
 * This is the eighth of many live-action re-imaginings of Disney animated films released in the 20th and 21st centuries, following Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book and Pete's Dragon. Many others are in development.
 * The teaser includes the opening music from the animated film and a piano sample of the title song.
 * Three new songs were written and composed for the film, in addition to the original songs featured in the animated version.
 * The film will not include songs from the Broadway adaptation.
 * This will be the fourth time that Emma Thompson will do a role for a Disney film after playing Captain Amelia in Treasure Planet, Queen Elinor in Brave and P. L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks.
 * This will be the fourth movie collaboration between Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci following Jack the Giant Slayer, Robots and A Life Less Ordinary.
 * Actors Luke Evans who played Gaston and Ian McKellen who played Cogsworth, previously collaborated in The Hobbit trilogy, in which Evans played as the bowman called Bard while McKellen played as the wizard called Gandalf but their characters did not interact until the finale of the trilogy.
 * Actors Stanley Tucci who played Cadenza and Dan Stevens who played the Beast previously worked together in Bill Condon's thriller film The Fifth Estate.
 * Actresses Emma Watson who played Belle and Emma Thompson who played Mrs. Potts, previously worked in the Harry Potter franchise. In that franchise Watson played a witch and a student called Hermione Granger while Thompson played a witch, seer and a professor called Sybill Trelawney.
 * The production cultivated a total of 1500 "enchanted" roses for the movie.
 * All the wardrobe was made of sustainable materials friendly with the average environment.
 * Interestingly, the actors Emma Watson (Belle), Luke Evans (Gaston), Emma Thompson (Mrs Potts) and Nathan Mack (Chip) share the same birth date, April 15th.
 * Emma Watson reveals she wanted to play Belle instead of Cinderella.

International Premieres

 * February 23, 2017 (London)
 * March 16, 2017 (Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Republic of Korea, Croatia, Italy, Cambodia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan)
 * March 17, 2017 (Bulgaria, Canada, China, Estonia, Spain, Finland, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, USA)
 * March 22, 2017 (France)
 * March 23, 2017 (Australia, Argentina, Hungary, Israel)
 * March 29, 2017 (Belgium, Netherlands)
 * March 30, 2017 (Chile)
 * April 14, 2017 (South Africa)
 * April 21, 2017 (Japan)