So earlier today I wrote up the news that a visually inventive filmmaker would be pursuing a project based on the Beauty and the Beast fairytale with leads already attached. Well now I get to write that same news again, except instead of Christophe Gans we have Guillermo Del Toro, and instead of Vincent Cassel and Lea Seydoux we have Emma Watson.
The details on the first film are right here.
As for Del Toro’s project — which has been in development before as one of his many many many many producing projects — the change today is the announcement that Warner Brothers has brought him on to direct instead of just oversee things. He’ll be penciling a treatment over top of which new scribe Andrew Davies will be fashion a complete script. Davies is responsible for a metric shit-ton of televised British period drama scripts, last year’s Three Musketeers, and the two Bridget Jones movies. [needle scratch sound] Say what? Ok, moving on…
Baffled though I may be by WB’s choice of screenwriter, I have to say I’m pleased seeing this film’s pieces falling together even before Del Toro completes his other WB project, Pacific Rim. Perhaps this director/studio relationship will bear more frequent fruit and Del Toro will be able to put his Malickian pace of movie-making behind him and churn out some flicks!
WB darling Emma Watson is the other piece of this puzzle, and she’s signed on to play opposite whatever beast Guillermo cooks up to imprison her. There’s an obvious conflict of interest here as Ron Perlman would be the next casting leap in any universe other than the one we currently inhabit where he’s already done it once before.
There’s no definitive word that this will absolutely come after Pacific Rim, and there’s always a chance one of the other projects will coalesce. I’d bet on Del Toro rolling with the studio that’s made things work when other haven’t though, so there’s a good chance we’ll be hearing more about this soon.
Twitter
Comment Below
Message Board
Source | Variety