Disney has had a new, live-action take on Beauty And The Beast in the works for a while now, with This Life/Doctor Who directing veteran Joe Ahearne at one point attached to take the reins. Now that Maleficent has scored a solid hit at the box office, the Mouse House is understandably pushing this one into high gear, and has Bill Condon on board to call the shots instead.
Exactly how – or indeed whether – the new tale will re-invent the story of the cursed prince and the young woman who wins his hairy heart to (spoiler alert) break the evil spell remains to be seen, but we do know that Evan Spiliotopoulos is currently at work on the script.
Condon, of course, knows a thing or two about supernatural romance and hairy creatures, since he was responsible for the final two Twilight films, adapting Breaking Dawn. But Disney’s probably also interested by the fact that he has musical experience with Dreamgirls, though it’s not yet clear if the new Beauty will employ music elements as did the Oscar-nominated 1991 animated version.
Condon’s currently preparing to shoot aged Sherlock Holmes tale A Slight Trick Of The Mind, which reunites him with **Gods And Monsters **star Ian McKellen. You can hear McKellen talk a little bit about it on our podcast right here.
Disney currently appears intent on adapting its entire animated fairy tale back catalogue into live-action, with Cinderella due next year and an Alice In Wonderland sequel, Through The Looking Glass, already in the works. We recently took a look at some previous ‘toon-to-live-action conversion jobs to see which ones worked; let's hope that Beauty & The Beast falls on the right side of the divide.