Hot on the heels of today’s earlier announcement that Luke Evans will playing Gaston, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Walt Disney Pictures has selected the star of The Guest to put their magic to the test. According to the trade, Dan Stevens will play the transformed prince opposite Emma Watson’s Belle in the upcoming live-action take on Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s classic fairy tale.
Set to be directed by Bill Condon (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) and produced by Mandeville Films’ David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, Beauty and the Beast marks the latest in a string of live-action retellings of classic Disney animated classics. In addition to the recently-released Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent, the studio will release their Kenneth Branagh-helmed take on Cinderella later this month and has a Jon Favreau-helmed version of The Jungle Book on the way April 15, 2016.
Watson herself had been previously attached to another version of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy tale at Warner Bros. That project stalled after director Guillermo del Toro dropped out last summer. Apparently Del Toro gave Watson his blessing to move on to Disney’s version, no doubt sweetened by the fact that the script was written by Stephen Chbosky, who directed Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Stevens, also well known for starring on “Downton Abbey,” starred last year in A Walk Among the Tombstones and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. He can soon be seen back on the big screen in Tom McCarthy’s The Cobbler.
(Photo Credit: Mario Mitsis / WENN.com)
