With a lot of live-action remakes and reimaginings on the way many people are afraid the movies will get too into the whole “reality” business. Some in the past have gone too real or too grim and drab, ignoring the sense of whimsy and fun that made the original great. Disney has been doing a great job of giving their modern updates a sense of magic and wonder to go along with the live-action feel, but the question is can they keep it up? When it comes to the upcoming BEAUTY AND THE BEAST update, star Luke Evans has some reassuring words.
During an interview with Cinema Blend, Evans spoke about how important it was for him as an actor to bring a certain sense of bravado to the character of Gaston, who in the animated version is the barrel-chested a-hole of the film who is like Donald Trump on a mega-dose of crack:
“There's definitely a theatricality that I can bring to this role that I don't usually get to do. There's a slight heightened reality to the film. It's Disney and we're re-creating a much loved Disney story. He's larger than life in every respect. No, it's definitely really fun to play, and I did get to do more theatricality”
As for how his character will evolve (or devolve, rather), Evans says Gaston will go from bad to worse, much like in the animated version:
“It was really fun to play this character, because it's such a great arc, such a great like arc. He starts as a kind of lovable rogue – says all these self-absorbed egocentric phrases and has his crazy sidekick. And then once he starts to realize he's not going to get his own way, the facade starts to crack, and there's a monster appears, and he ends up being quite the villain.”
It sounds like everyone involved in the movie will doing everything they can to make the movie seem and look as modern and realistic as they can, while still embracing what made every aspect special in the animated version. Evans himself describes this new Gaston as one that’s a real-life butthole, but still with a grand over-theatricality about him.
Back in 2014 I dreaded any kind of Disney-related modern update, like MALEFICENT, which was a movie I happily entered into my worst-of list for that year. Now, I have no problem saying movies like CINDERELLA and JUNGLE BOOK will go down as some of my favorite movies of their year. Needless to say I am beyond pumped for the upcoming BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, hoping that one of Disney’s best animated movies will become one of their best live-action features. I also know I used the word “pumped” to describe my feelings for what is essentially a children’s movie, which is a little aggressive. But what can I say; my feelings for the new JOHN WICK footage have to spill-over somewhere.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST starring Emma Watson, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Dan Stevens, Ian McKellen and Ewan McGregor is set for March 17, 2017