It was announced earlier this summer that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Parts 1 & 2 helmer Bill Condon is set to direct a live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Now, EW reveals that The Perks of Being a Wallflower‘s author/screenwriter/director Stephen Chbosky is set to provide the screenplay.
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. This version, however, is based largely on Disney’s own 1991 animated feature and is said to include some of the same songs.
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. That take was originally going to be directed by Guillermo del Toro with Emma Watson in the lead. Del Toro, however, departed the project some time ago and Watson’s commitment to the role is, for the time being, uncertain.
