Beauty and the Beast over at Warner Bros. with Emma Watson set to star as Belle. Well, at the same time Disney was developing a of their own and now that del Toro is no longer involved at WB, Disney is the only one left in the game and they’ve got Bill Condon (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, Dreamgirls) directing and Watson now confirmed for the lead role in their feature.
It’s an interesting turn of events considering Watson had been loosely attached to the WB version since 2011, but it seems she’s the right actor for the part no matter where it’s being made or who is directing as production on Disney’s feature is expected to begin later this year.
Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the screenplay with a career that so far includes several direct-to-video animated movies for Disney as well as had a hand in Brett Ratner‘s awful Hercules as well as has had a hand in scripting the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel as well as Wanted 2. Not exactly a promising filmography if you ask me. Fortunately, Stephen Chbosky who wrote and directed Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower has since rewritten the screenplay.
Obviously Disney is hoping for more success such as they found with Maleficent and hope to find with the live action Cinderella this March.
