Very interesting news coming from Variety tonight that Warner Bros. have secured Guillermo del Toro to direct a new version of Beauty and the Beast.
The director is currently filming his Robots Vs Aliens epic Pacific Rim and will also produce the new film for Warners, which will have a script from Andrew Davies, the prolific writer who has adapted most of Jane Austen’s works (notably Pride and Prejudice for the BBC) and the Bridget Jones novels as well the most recent adaptation of The Three Musketeers.
Emma Watson is also named as the actress the studio are actively courting to play the lead and if she were to accept this would mark her most visible role since the end of the Harry Potter films.
Tolkien fans were teased for years with the prospect of having a film version of The Hobbit directed by Guillermo del Toro and though his years working on the film, which will now be brought to the big screen by Peter Jackson, were not in vain it was a disappointing end, and his vision of the film will no doubt go down in history as one of the most intriguing films never made. His take on the classic story of Beauty and the Beast will be greatly anticipated.
Now, who to play the Beast…perhaps Hellboy man Ron Perlman, after all – he’s done that before.
