Beauty And The Beast is one of those fairy tales that, due to the 1991 megahit that was recently re-released in 3D, Disney has pretty firmly on lockdown in American pop culture. While the 250+ year old European fairy tale had been adapted nearly a half-dozen times in various forms before the Disney version, it is their animation that has become the definitive interpretation and last year’s Beastly did little to shift that status quo.
Silent Hill and Brotherhood Of The Wolf director Christophe Gans seeks to change all that though, as he works to bring the tale to life again using “images of an unparalleled quality,” which is kind of a weird way of phrasing your self-applied superlative. He also promises to respect the pacing and grammar of the “original,” though I don’t really know what he’s referring to.
“Although I will keep to a form of storytelling of this timeless fairy tale that is in keeping with the same pace and characters as the original, I will surprise the audience by creating a completely new visual universe never experienced before and produce images of an unparalleled quality… Every single one of my movies has presented me with a challenge, but this one is, by far, the most exciting and rewarding.”
In any event, he’s got Vincent Cassel and Lea Sedoux attached to star (I assume as the Beast and the Beauty respectively, but maybe a gender-switch will be part of his reinterpretation?). You should damn well know Vincent Cassel, but the frowny-faced beauty of Miss Lea Seydoux has only just started making its stamp on American films, with her most recently taking a supporting role as an assassin in Mission Impossible 4.
WHOAH bald
There’s not much else to the project now, as it is at-present only a pitch being hustled over at the European Film Market they’ve got on across the sea. A/V Club astutely notes that this project joins Guillermo Del Toro’s in-development beauty/beast film that would theoretically star Emma Watson, however there are very few projects anyone could develop that ole Guillermo wouldn’t have some version of on his slate too. Mattering even less is the development of several network TV pilots around the same fairy tale, as this whole Grimm, Once Upon A Time bullshit continues to be a trend on those networks for whatever reason.
Good luck at those pitch meetings Mr. Gans.
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Source | THR