Yesterday we learned Luke Evans will be playing Gaston in Bill Condon's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST starring Emma Watson as Belle, and now THR is reporting that Condon's THE FIFTH ESTATE actor and Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens has been cast as the titular beast. Last night Emma Watson tweeted "she could not be more happy" that Dan Stevens will be playing Beast, and Stevens also shared an image with the "Beast Mode" expression on his Twitter to announce the news.
Bill Condon will direct the live-action musical from a script by THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER author and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky, and production on the Disney film is scheduled to begin sometime this year.
I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you I'm pumped for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST like I am for the other films that are currently in the works. However, the project does have a very solid cast and Bill Condon is a fantastic director, so it might be worth checking out. How excited are you for Condon's new movie?
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST doesn't have a release date yet, but it will probably open late 2016.