by Justin Cook
After a breakthrough performance in last year’s action-thriller The Guest, Dan Stevens is in final talks to join Disney’s live-action retelling of Beauty and the Beast as The Beast/Prince.
Luke Evans has also joined the cast of the film as the gloriously confident yet villainous Gaston. Both actors will be co-starring in the film alongside Harry Potter and The Bling Ring actress Emma Watson, who will play the role of The Beauty/Belle.
The film will be an adaptation of 1991’s animated Disney classic Beauty and the Beast.
2014 proved to be a very successful year for both Evans and Stevens. On top of The Guest, Stevens also starred with Ben Stiller and Robin Williams in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, and with Liam Neeson in A Walk Among the Tombstones. In 2015, he can be seen starring in a film entitled Criminal Activities with John Travolta, and The Ticket with Oliver Platt.
Evans, on the other hand, starred in the surprise hit Dracula Untold, and reprised his role as Bard in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The actor also played the villain in 2013’s box office smash Fast and Furious 6. His upcoming projects include High-Rise, a sci-fi thriller starring Tom Hiddleston and Sienna Miller, and Free Fire, a crime-drama with Olivia Wilde and Armie Hammer.
Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and The Fifth Estate director Bill Condon will helm the project, with The Perks of Being a Wallflower writer and director Steven Chbosky.
Recently, Disney has been either adapting or retelling many classic fairy tales, with films such as 2014’s Maleficent and this year’s upcoming Cinderella. Maleficent became a major success for the studio, grossing close to $760 million on a $180 million budget.
Cinderella is opening in theaters in just a little over a week, on March 13.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter and Variety
