On the heels of Maleficent‘s strong performance at the box office, Walt Disney Pictures has, according to a story at Variety, set The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Parts 1 & 2 helmer Bill Condon to direct a live-action version of their 1991 animated classic Beauty and the Beast.
A traditional fairytale, the earliest published version of the story was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and appeared in France in the 18th century. Guillermo del Toro has also been planning a live-action feature film version at Warner Bros. with Emma Watson attached to star.
Beauty and the Beast joins fellow animation-to-live-action projects like Cinderella, The Jungle Book and Cruella, all in various stages of development at the studio. Like Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s new version of The Jungle Book will have to contend with an upcoming Warner Bros. version.
Mandeville Films is producing Beauty and the Beast and has Hercules scribe Evan Spiliotopoulos attached to provide the screenplay.
