Emma Watson is Belle in Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'

It seems Emma Watson just can't stay away from Beauty and the Beast. Awhile back she was attached to lead a version of the fairy tale led by Guillermo Del Toro, but that project never got moving. Now she's back in the lead role once again, only this time it's for Disney and director Bill Condon.

Because, obviously, she's not going to be playing a furry beast (although that would be interesting in a way?), Watson will take on the role of Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Chalk it up as another fairy tale reimagining for Disney, who have already given us Maleficent and will have Cinderella in the coming months.

Condon last got behind the camera for the Wikileaks thriller, The Fifth Estate, and will begin production on Beauty and the Beast this year.

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Guillermo Del Toro Won't Direct Emma Watson in 'Beauty and the Beast' After All

The promising combination of Emma Watson and Guillermo Del Toro, long attached to a live-action Beauty and the Beast adaptation for Warner Bros., sadly isn't going to happen. There are a ton of good things to say about Del Toro but one bad thing is that he takes on too many promising projects and has to drop out when scheduling gets tight. And that's what happened with Beauty and the Beast, but Warner Bros. will soldier on.

Even though Disney is planning their own version of the fairy tale, Warner Bros. is pushing forward on Beauty and the Beast with Watson still on board to star. Del Toro's script remains in effect and he'll continue to produce, but a new director is being sought now and should be announced in a few days.

Hopefully Del Toro will have some input in who takes over and will select someone that can bring his vision to life. [Deadline]

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Bill Condon Confirmed as Director of Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'

With Maleficent racking up an impressive $170M opening weekend, and following the $1B of Alice in Wonderland, Disney is more gung-ho than ever about bringing their fairy tales back to the screen in live-action form. About a year ago we learned of their plans to adapt Beauty and the Beast, and in April it was suggested that Bill Condon (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) might be its director. Turns out that story was true as Condon has now been confirmed.

Condon, who is coming off the Wikileaks drama nobody saw, The Fifth Estate, will direct Beauty and the Beast from a script by Evan Spiliotopoulos. Spiliotopoulos is the writer behind some of Disney's straight-to-DVD sequels, including Tarzan 2 and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. Whether this will be a straight adaptation or a version told from a different perspective like Maleficent is unclear.

Disney's next live-action adaptation will be Cinderella, which opens next March. That will be followed by Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book. [Variety]

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Bill Condon May Direct Disney's Live-Action 'Beauty and the Beast'

Disney continues on with their plan to adapt many of their animated classics into live-action, and we can probably expect they'll get to all of them eventually. Alice in Wonderland's $1B haul is a pretty good reason to soldier on, and so we've got Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and possibly another 101 Dalmatians coming up. But next on Disney's list is Beauty and the Beast, the story of a woman who falls in love with a monster. So it only makes sense they'd look to 'Breaking Dawn' director, Bill Condon, for the directing job.

A tweet by Filmdivider says to expect Condon to direct Beauty and the Beast, which Disney got moving on last year with the hiring of Joe Aherne (Trance) to begin work on the screenplay. Bear in mind this has nothing to do with the Guillermo Del Toro version that has been kicking around for awhile. That one had Emma Watson attached to it at one point, and she may still be involved if it ever gets going. Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel are also starring in a live-action version of the story over in France, directed by Christophe Gans. Hopefully that one will make it here to America.

As for Condon, he's been around a long time and has been generally successful despite not being the most inventive of filmmakers. He directed the final two chapters of the Twilight Saga, Dreamgirls, the Kinsey biopic with Liam Neeson, Gods and Monsters, and last year's underwhelming Wikileaks thriller The 5th Estate. He's a logical yet uninspiring choice, just as choosing Kenneth Branagh for Cinderella was.

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Gorgeous New Trailer for 'Beauty and the Beast' Starring Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel

Considering the visual flourishes he's shown on Brotherhood of the Wolf and Silent Hill, the first trailer for Christophe Gans' Beauty and the Beast felt a little flat. But with the film headed to the Berlin Film Festival and on the verge of its French debut, a new trailer has been released that showcases the magical qualities of the story, and the gorgeous cast Gans has put together.

 Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) and Vincent Cassel (Trance) lead the film, which appears to be taking a fairly traditional route on the classic story of a beautiful woman who falls in love with a hideous beast. Plenty of CGI and bold costumes await, allowing Gans to put his artistic stamp on the production, so hopefully it'll find a way onto our shores.

Beauty and the Beast opens in France on February 12th.

Belle et La Bête

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First Trailer for 'Beauty and the Beast' Starring Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel

Pairing Christophe Gans, the director behind the imaginative Brotherhood of the Wolf and Silent Hill, with fairy tale Beauty and the Beast would seem like a match made in cinematic heaven. Throw in Palm d'Or winner Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) and Vincent Cassel (Trance) and there's little wonder so many have extremely high hopes. We've seen a number of gorgeous, colorful images but does the finished product actually work?

The first trailer has arrived and even though it's in French there's no problem picking up on all the familiar story elements. The problem is that other than the gorgeous Seydoux and Cassel's combination of menace and charm, there's little that stands out as inspiring. Actually, it looks far more tame than one would expect from Gans.

Beauty and the Beast has yet to gain a U.S. date but opens in France on February 12th.

Belle et La Bête

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First Poster for 'Beauty and the Beast' with Vincent Cassel and Lea Seydoux

Christophe Gans' vast visual flourishes gave Brotherhood of the Wolf and Silent Hill a lurid, imaginative touch. So the idea of him taking on an updated version of Beauty and the Beast is promising on its own, but through in Vincent Cassel and red-hot Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) and the results should be magic.

The first poster for La Belle Et La Bête has been released and it offers up a look at the beast, played by Cassel who starred in Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf. Don't expect a Disney version of the classic story, either, as Gans will draw mostly from the original 18th century story by Madame de Villeneuve, which is considerably darker and more in line with the director's sensibilities.

Beauty and the Beast opens in France on February 12th 2014 but has yet to gain U.S. distribution. [Allocine]

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Disney plans 'Beauty and the Beast' reimagining, 'The Beast'

Now that Oz the Great and Powerful has done big business for Disney, they're looking to add on to the upcoming slate of fairy tale reimaginings. Already with a live-action Cinderella and Maleficent on the way, the Mouse House is looking to put a new spin on Beauty in the Beast. I guess nobody there saw Beastly?

Disney has hired Joe Ahearne to pen the script for a film titled The Beast, which makes this the third Beauty and the Beast film currently in development. The most high-profile one has Guillermo Del Toro attached to direct with Emma Watson in the lead role.  Ahearne makes for an interesting choice as he recently wrote the script for Danny Boyle's crime thriller, Trance, so here's hoping this will be a darker take on the material.

It's possible this sets off a chain of events that leads to the busy Del Toro dropping out of his film, as Warner Bros. may want to move forward faster now. Disney will likely move quickly on this one, hoping to snowball off Oz the Great and Powerful's momentum. [Deadline]

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Emma Watson to star in Guillermo Del Toro-directed 'Beauty and the Beast'

Another Beauty and the Beast film takes shape just days after we learned of Christophe Gans' modern version starring Vincent Cassel and Lea Seydoux? The famous fairy tale continues to be a Hollywood moneymaker, with Disney recently re-releasing their animated classic into theaters, and now special effects maestro, Guillermo Del Toro, is preparing to direct his own.

It's been years since we've seen a film directed by Del Toro in theaters, and we won't until his giant monster movie, Pacific Rim, opens in 2013. He'll be following that up with Beauty and the Beast, which we first learned about last year when Del Toro was only in the producer's chair. Emma Watson, who has been busy since graduating from the Harry Potter franchise, is attached to star. The script will come from Andrew Davies(Bridget Jones's Diary), based on a story developed by Del Toro. 

Del Toro is probably one of the few filmmakers who can make this very familiar story unique. It'll be cool to see if he casts his Hellboy star, Ron Perlman, to play the beast considering he has so much experience in the role already. Perlman played the character in the hit CBS TV series which ran from 1987-1990. [Variety]

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Trailer Time: Beauty and the Beast 3D

Because $380M isn't enough. Because Disney saw The Lion King re-released into theaters and earn nearly $100M, even as the studio told you "Hey, we're putting it out on Blu-Ray in just a few days, y'know!". For those reasons, Beauty and the Beast is making it's grab for more cash long awaited return to theaters in 3D, on January 13th.

This'll mark the first of four re-releases from Disney/Pixar coming our way over the next couple of years. Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc., and The Little Mermaid are next on the list.  Disney has brought online the first trailer for Beauty and the Beast 3D, and this time....the Beast is back for revenge!!!!! I wish.

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Emma Watson to star in Guillermo Del Toro-produced Beauty and the Beast

Of all the recent graduates from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, none appears to be busier than Emma Watson. Makes sense to me since I thought she developed into the best performer of them all. Since the Harry Potter series came to it's conclusion, she hasn't wasted much time jumping into smaller films that will provide the opportunity to stretch her talent to another level. She's got a part in My Week with Marilyn, opposite Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh. And then she's got yet another adaptation of a very popular young adult book on the horizon as she'll be toplining The Perks of Being a Wallflower, with Logan Lerman and Paul Rudd. If those films sound too boring for a follow-up for you, then you'll be happy to know she's not done with the realm of magic just yet.

Comingsoon.net got a fewwords from producer Denise  Di Novi while at a press junket, where she revealed that a new adaptation of Beauty and the Beast was on the way, produced by Guillermo Del Toro. That's cool enough right there, but then she noted that Emma Watson would be starring. I'm assuming she'd be the titular "beauty". Not much more in the way of details are known at this point.

I'm not gonna lie, Disney's version of the fairy tale is my favorite, and I could watch it over and over again. Don't judge me and my soft heart.  Although I only saw an episode or two, there were more than a few women in my family who adored the TV series starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. Actually, since Del Toro and Perlman are such good buds having worked together on Hellboy, would anyone be surprised if he came back? They'd save a ton on the make-up/special effects budget.

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