Live Action Beauty and the Beast

[Leif]

I haven't seen a topic about this, so I thought I'd bring it up.

B&B (Disney Version) is, by far, one of my favorite animated pictures of all time. When I noticed the announcement a few months ago, I had mixed feelings. Considering that the director did the last Twilight movie (argh), this could end up a flop (i.e Maleficent (2014)). However, with acting legends like Emma Thompson and Ian Mckellan in the film, this could, conversely, end up being pretty good, such as (2015) Cinderella. Cinderella had great casting and performances overall (Although Helen Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother was weird).

Also, I read that B&B (2017) was going to stay true to the original cartoon. Should that be true, it seems like they can't mess it up that bad. However, one never knows.

On a positive note, they got the guy who did the music for the cartoon to do the music in this film; that's a major plus!!

I am not so sure about Emma Watson as Belle. Don't get me wrong, she's a fine actress. I'm just worried about her singing voice (she has no experience whatsoever). The actor from Downton Abbey, Dan Stevens, couldn't have been a better choice (in terms of looks alone) for the prince. He was decent in Downton Abbey, but I don't know how he'll look or act as the beast; his performance should be a surprise to say the least.

What do you guys think? Let's hope that this'll be a good movie. :(

Edited May 18, 2015 by Leif

[Knight]

I'm not really fond of Disney movies getting these live-action treatments in general, the ones that would look great in live-action will probably never be made, and with each new remake it doesn't change the ultimate fact that the originals will always be better in almost all cases, the exceptions will never be made cause they're not popular enough.

That said, if they must continue to exist, then I find this casting pretty good, Emma's unknown singing voice aside. I'm very curious as to how the beast will look as well.

[Anacybele]

Ew, Emma Watson as Belle? She's not even that pretty at all. But what do I really care, I don't give one crap about these live action remakes Disney is doing. They all look awful. I want something original already. What happened to Frozen 2? They announced that fairly recently, I want to hear more about it.

[Loki Laufeyson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvdf5n-zI14

That about sums up how i feel about all of these live action Disney remakes. Its lazy, an obvious cash grab, and quite frankly, insulting. Theres no real creativity here. None. If they wanted to do something like this, they should stick to Broadway.

[Knight]

Ew, Emma Watson as Belle? She's not even that pretty at all. But what do I really care, I don't give one crap about these live action remakes Disney is doing. They all look awful. I want something original already. What happened to Frozen 2? They announced that fairly recently, I want to hear more about it.

Well, a significant number of people (including myself) find her pretty. Not that it will make these movies any better. I've heard that both Snow and Maleficent were awful, and I didn't even know the Cinderella movie existed. I know that whatever Disney does, even a million people couldn't sway them. Between Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and everything else they own, they have money to burn on unnecessary remakes. I might as well pick at what I think might be good. The only live-action Disney movie I might want to see is Sword in the Stone, I'd even prefer my personal favourites remain untouched.

I heard that they are going to make a live-action Winnie the Pooh, which may be the worst idea in cinematic history since Batman & Robin.

[Jedi]

Well, a significant number of people (including myself) find her pretty. Not that it will make these movies any better. I've heard that both Snow and Maleficent were awful, and I didn't even know the Cinderella movie existed. I know that whatever Disney does, even a million people couldn't sway them. Between Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and everything else they own, they have money to burn on unnecessary remakes. I might as well pick at what I think might be good. The only live-action Disney movie I might want to see is Sword in the Stone, I'd even prefer my personal favourites remain untouched.

I heard that they are going to make a live-action Winnie the Pooh, which may be the worst idea in cinematic history since Batman & Robin.

I will actually defend Maleficent, since it was an interesting take on an old story. Quite different then its original.

[Anacybele]

I know, I heard that there's going to be a live action Dumbo too, and that the director for it is Tim Burton. Yeah, TIM BURTON. The dude that does all the creepy stuff. He's just weird, the only movie I enjoyed from him is Nightmare Before Christmas. Dumbo isn't a creepy horror film, it's the touching tale of how a baby elephant with a deformity overcomes everybody and their mother teasing him for it.

[Dragoncat]

I know, I heard that there's going to be a live action Dumbo too, and that the director for it is Tim Burton. Yeah, TIM BURTON. The dude that does all the creepy stuff. He's just weird, the only movie I enjoyed from him is Nightmare Before Christmas. Dumbo isn't a creepy horror film, it's the touching tale of how a baby elephant with a deformity overcomes everybody and their mother teasing him for it.

Wow really? Crazy...

How do they do live action when the characters are animals anyway? Wouldn't that be pretty hard? Like...with Dumbo. Good luck finding a baby elephant with giant ears that can fly and training it.

[Jedi]

I know, I heard that there's going to be a live action Dumbo too, and that the director for it is Tim Burton. Yeah, TIM BURTON. The dude that does all the creepy stuff. He's just weird, the only movie I enjoyed from him is Nightmare Before Christmas. Dumbo isn't a creepy horror film, it's the touching tale of how a baby elephant with a deformity overcomes everybody and their mother teasing him for it.

You didn't enjoy the 89 Batman movie or Batman Returns? :P

[Shin]

Wow really? Crazy...

How do they do live action when the characters are animals anyway? Wouldn't that be pretty hard? Like...with Dumbo. Good luck finding a baby elephant with giant ears that can fly and training it.

CG is powerful, otherwise the last ninja turtles movie would have been rather difficult to orchestrate.

[Knight]

I will actually defend Maleficent, since it was an interesting take on an old story. Quite different then its original.

It is... different... but I don't think it's worth ruining the villainous portrayal in the original. At least because it is different, there is some merit to its existence.

Wow really? Crazy...

How do they do live action when the characters are animals anyway? Wouldn't that be pretty hard? Like...with Dumbo. Good luck finding a baby elephant with giant ears that can fly and training it.

It'll probably be CG, so in other words, not really live-action, doing even less to validate its existence. (If they actually train elephants to carry a feature film, I'll actually be impressed.)

I do really love Burton's older work; Batman and Batman Returns, Beetlejuice and Nightmare B4 Xmas. Alice in Wonderland was kind of egh and had way too much CG (a trend with all these "live-action" remakes actually).

[Jedi]

It is... different... but I don't think it's worth ruining the villainous portrayal in the original. At least because it is different, there is some merit to its existence.

I honestly felt it made it more grey then the old Black and White, and I usually like B&W but they did it in an interesting way imo.

[Anacybele]

You didn't enjoy the 89 Batman movie or Batman Returns? :P

Didn't see those. I never said I saw ALL of Burton's films. xP

[Knight]

I honestly felt it made it more grey then the old Black and White, and I usually like B&W but they did it in an interesting way imo.

Well, I didn't actually see it, but I did see Cinema Sins and a couple other reviews on it. Not really enough to make a fair assessment I guess, but from what I know, I'm not that enticed.

I didn't really like Sleeping Beauty all that much anyway when I was young. Actually, these movies feel a lot like like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where we had to get mandatory movies like Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 out of the way so we could get to see-OH MY GOD PLEASE NO!

Edited May 18, 2015 by Knight

[Leif]

I don't think it has been a month, so I hope I'm not necro-posting..
Anyway, here is the director talking about how wonderful Emma Watson is at singing.

https://youtu.be/gkgiqYbQzW8

What do you guys think? He seems pretty pleased with his film's progress. Edited June 14, 2015 by Leif

[Magical CC]

I don't think it has been a month, so I hope I'm not necro-posting..

Anyway, here is the director talking about how wonderful Emma Watson is at singing.

What do you guys think? He seems pretty pleased with his film's progress.

They are all like that. Have you ever watched any "making progress" commercial that the director/developer/anyone relates to the product say bad things about it? I have not. Dont hold your breath, it's nothing new.

Also, Emma is kinda pretty. I knew it right at the moment I saw her in the first Hairy Potter movie. This girl will be a cutie in the future, that's what I thought. But she is not pretty enough to be called "beautiful". And her acting is not good enough, you know, it's not like she cant act but she has not made any progress in the recent years. She is lucky since her acting career was lifted by Hairy Potter, I know a lot of better actresses that had to work alot harder than her and that Khaleesi girl to archive the same status. For actress, the fastest way to get rep is either you show your tits or lucky enough to be in a famous movie.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Magical CC

[Leif]

They are all like that. Have you ever watched any "making progress" commercial that the director/developer/anyone relates to the product say bad things about it? I have not. Dont hold your breath, it's nothing new.

Also, Emma is kinda pretty. I knew it right at the moment I saw her in the first Hairy Potter movie. This girl will be a cutie in the future, that's what I thought. But she is not pretty enough to be called "beautiful". And her acting is not good enough, you know, it's not like she cant act but she has not made any progress in the recent years. She is lucky since her acting career was lifted by Hairy Potter, I know a lot of better actresses that had to work alot harder than her and that Khaleesi girl to archive the same status. For actress, the fastest way to get rep is either you show your tits or lucky enough to be in a famous movie.

Yeah, I know this too well; guess I'm too optimistic. He could be very well talking out of this hat.

I find Emma very pretty, but that's just me. However I do agree that her acting is very 'samey'. When she is in other films, I just think "hey it's Hermione again!" She has little range in her acting abilities. I, honestly, hope she does Belle's character justice.

Anyways... I found this clip completely by chance.

It shows Ewan McGregor's (dude from Star Wars and Moulin Rouge) thoughts on playing Lumiere in the movie. Apparently he's finished already! O_o

Long story short, he struggled with the French accent. Yikes...

Edit: wow I look totally obsessed with this movie. xD

Edited July 8, 2015 by Leif

[Leif]

If not, then feel free to quote this, and post the set pictures and whatnot.

Eclipse gave me permission to post again.

I have some updates on the progress of this film for those who are interested.

[spoiler=Interesting Cast Roles Revealed]

On IMDB, the entire cast has been revealed.

Aside from the main roles, i.e. "Belle", "Beast", "Gaston", etc. there are some interesting roles that I noticed.

There are 30 individuals cast as generic villagers, vagrants, debutantes, fishmongers, etc. I believe these people will be the actors who take part in the opening music number "Belle" as well as Gaston's "Mob Song".

Now here is the interesting part.

There are actors/actresses cast for these roles:

-"Young Prince"

-"The King"

-"The Queen"

-Hattie Morahan as "Agathe/The Enchantress"

This shows that Condon is expanding on Beast's backstory a ton. In the animated film, we barely new a thing about Beast's past other than the fact that he was a spoiled prince. We didn't even learn a thing about his parents; he was a prince after all, not a king.

The Enchantress is named. I would venture to guess that her role is expanded as well. Fun thing to note, Hattie Morahan (Enchantress) and Dan Stevens (Beast) played the romantic leads in 2008's Sense and Sensibility.

Now there is a woman playing "Belle's Mother". This is especially interesting since we never learned a thing about Belle's mother in the animated film. Perhaps she will leave Maurice or die of an illness when Belle is young? Belle's Mother is not named, so she will most likely have a minor role. Perhaps she will show up in a flashback?

There are also actors playing "Tom" and "Stanley". Those names never appeared in the animated film. I don't know who these characters are. Perhaps they are Gaston's lackeys?

Last but not least, the Jim Henson Company(?) puppeteer who helped with the puppet movements in the 80's film, Labyrinth is working in this film. It will be interesting to see how animatronics and puppets will be used in this film.

Fun note: Gaston's horse is a big, black, friesian horse named Magnifique. That's an homage to 1946's Beauty and the Beast. There was a horse named Magnifique.

Here is the source if you want to take a gander:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/

Here is an interview with Josh Gad who says that Emma Watson has an "amazing singing voice". I'm surprised since Emma has never sung for a role before. Perhaps she has natural talent or her lessons really helped her voice?

http://www.bravotv.com/watch-what-happens-live/season-12/episode-12120/videos?clip=2882177

Here is an interview with Bill Condon. He talks about the movie's details. As I said in the spoiler above, it does seem that Condon is trying to fill the plot holes from the animated film and Broadway show.

He wants to answer questions like "why does no one in Belle's village know about Beast's castle?"

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Bill-Condon-Discusses-New-BEAUTY-AND-THE-BEAST-Film-You-Will-Believe-A-Beast-Can-Waltz-20150730

Finally...

...here is a photo of Josh Gad (Le Fou) and Luke Evans (Gaston) on set.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Live-Action-Beauty-Beast-Wraps-With-Look-Snowy-Set-74397.html

Looks pretty amazing to me. My hype for this film has gone up two-fold. I am still sad that this movie won't come out until March 2017. :(

What do you guys think of these developments?

EDIT:

At the D23 expo this weekend, a clip of Emma Watson in the iconic yellow ball gown was released during the conference. I will update this post once the footage hits the internet.

EDIT2:

http://emmawatsonbelgium.blogspot.be/2015/08/new-everything-we-know-about-new-clips.html

Someone describes what was shown during the D23 clips. Emma's yellow dress is not like your traditional ball gown.

EDIT4:

http://watsonuncensored.blogspot.com/2015/08/wrap-of-beauty-and-beast-starring-emma.html

Filming finished. There's weird artwork of what seems to be the Beast? It could be just an artistic representation. At least I'm hoping that's the case because the Beast BETTER NOT LOOK LIKE THAT.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Leif