‘Downton Abbey’ star Dan Stevens to star with Emma Watson in ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens is in talks to play the Beast/Prince in Disney’s live-action musical Beauty and the Beast. Director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters) will reunite with Stevens and Emma Watson as Belle. The THR also noted that Luke Evans may play Gaston.
Beauty and the Beast is a high profile role for Stevens, who star in the to date, action thriller The Guest and also starred opposite Liam Neeson in the hard-boiled pic A Walk Among the Tombstones.
THR added that “Beauty continues Disney’s plan of taking some of its animated classics and brushing them up for a 21st century live-action makeover. Cinderella, which also features mostly British leads, is the latest — it opens March 13 — and it’s generating great reviews…Last year’s Maleficent was a live-action take onSleeping Beauty and made $758.4 million.”
Watson was cast in January and put her thoughts in a Facebook post: “It was such a big part of my growing up, it almost feels surreal that I’ll get to dance to ‘Be Our Guest’ and sing ‘Something There.’ … Time to start some singing lessons.”
Filming is set to begin later this year.
The 1994 animated classic broke the glass ceiling and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. With the upcoming remake of The Jungle Book (2016), Disney’s schedule is pretty full, so Beauty and the Beast won’t likely arrive in theaters until 2017, but expect more news to follow.
