Bill Condon expected to direct Disney’s live action Beauty and the Beast

Bill Condon has had one crazy career: going back to the bizarre sequel CANDYMAN: FAREWELL TO THE FLESH, Condon went on to direct the critically acclaimed GODS AND MONSTERS and KINSEY. He also helmed the award-winning musical DREAMGIRLS on the way to bringing us both parts of TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN. Now, it looks like he may be embracing his musical experience with a live action adaptation of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

Following Disney’s current trend of adapting their animated masterpieces as live action extravaganzas (ALICE IN WONDERLAND, MALEFICENT, CINDERELLA), BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will be competing with Guillermo Del Toro‘s in development adaptation of the same fairy tale. Film Divider shared their confidence that Condon would get the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST gig from Disney, so expect an announcement in the near future if all pans out.

If Disney has made any mistakes with adapting their animated films to date it would be that they have all been essentially live action cartoons. ALICE IN WONDERLAND was batshit crazy, but used too much CGI even for Tim Burton. MALEFICENT looks like it may be somewhat intriguing but I still think there is way too much green screen. We have to wait to see how Kenneth Branagh‘s CINDERELLA will look but I am hoping for better from a film starring Cate Blanchett. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is tricky because the Disney take is full of anthropomorphic furniture as well as the lion-like beast, so I would think we will get something along the lines of what we have already seen to date.

My only recommendation is that they keep this one a musical and cast Anna Kendrick after her great monologue performance on the most recent episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.