Movie Overview
Director: Bill Condon
Actors: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Grad
Genre: Fantasy, Musical, Romance
Overview
Beauty and The Beast is a 2017 American Fantasy Film, a remake of the 1991 Disney romantic animated film by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. This movie attempts to capitalize on the audience’s nostalgia through a swooning love sequel.
Storyline
A powerful sorceress puts a curse on the swaggering and heartless prince, turning him into a beast and his servants into utensils. She also gives the prince magic rose; if the prince fails to fall in love until the last petal fall, the curse will become eternal. Years pass and the servants (utensils) push the beast to spend as much time as possible with a beautiful girl named Bella as the only chance to break the curse.
Interesting Facts
1- The director partially shot the film in the UK, on the Berkhamsted Golf Club’s territory. This territory served as the backdrop for all parts of Harry Potter.
2- The first teaser of the film made a record – almost 92 million viewers in the first 24 hours. This makes the teaser for “Beauty and the Beast” the most popular teaser of all time. Before that, the record-holder was the film “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (88 million viewers), followed by “Captain America: Civil War” (61 million views on the first day). Disney owns all three films.
3- At the audition, the director of the film, Bill Condon, forced candidates to sing “Hakuna Matata” from “The Lion King” to understand the actors’ voices. On the basis of these auditions, the director finalized the caste.
4- Before giving up the role of Belle Emma, Paige O’Hara (the voice of Belle in the cartoon) and Susan Egan from the Broadway musical were considered as a British actress.
5- Belle is a Frenchwoman. Emma Watson was also born in France.
6- In preparation for her role, Emma Watson re-watched Beauty and the Beast and began taking vocal lessons.
7- Emma Watson (Belle) and Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts) both played in Harry Potter. The first played the role of Hermione, the second – Professor Trelawney
8- Speaking of McKellen initially, he did not want to play Cogsworth and several times rejected the studio’s offer. But in the end, he agreed.
9- Ewan McGregor, who plays Lumière, said that the most difficult thing was to portray his character’s French accent. Interestingly, the actor has been married to a French woman for over 20 years. But his pronunciation is more like Spanish.
10- Initially, the film producers saw only Jean Dujardin in the role of Lumiere.
11- The Beast’s role was offered to Ryan Gosling, but he refused to participate in the film. As a result, Dan Stevens played the Beast.
12- Emma Watson was one of the contenders for Cinderella’s role in the 2015 film adaptation of the same name.
13- Emma Watson was originally to play in another feature film, Beauty and the Beast, a Warner Bros Production Pictures with Guillermo del Toro as director.
14- The role of Le Foo went to the comedian Josh Gad, who voiced Olaf the snowman in Frozen. Interestingly, in the original “Beauty and the Beast” cartoon, Le Foo hid at Belle’s house in the form of a snowman.
15- Disney invested $ 160 million in this film and brought in the best team. Bill Condon wrote the script for the film “Chicago” and worked on the last two films of the “Twilight” saga.
16- Emma Watson refused to participate in the musical “La La Land” to appear as Bella in Beauty and The Beast.
17-The costumes of the heroes of the film almost completely repeat the outfits of the cartoon characters. Jacqueline Durran, Oscar winner for the best costumes for the film Anna Karenina, was responsible for them. She has previously dressed actors in Atonement, Pride and Prejudice, and Peng: A Journey to Neverland.
18- Belle’s character had to wear a corset but Emma Watson refused to wear it.
19- A production team of over 1000 people worked around the clock to design a huge set.
20- All of the leading actors in this film, except The Beast and Belle, have experience in theater and musical performances.
21- Emma Watson suggested that her character wear boots instead of the black flat shoes that Belle wore in the original cartoon. She felt boots would be better according to the image of the character. Belle also changed her hairstyle and clothes.
22- While filming the ballroom scenes, Emma Watson had to fight the urge to look down at the floor. Because Dan Stevens wore steel-toed shoes, and she feared he would step on her toes.
23- In the film, Belle is the inventor, not Maurice. They did this because Emma Watson wanted Belle to have a backstory that explains why the villagers don’t treat her like everyone else.
24- The shooting for the movie completed on August 27, 2015. More than 18 months before the film’s premiere.
25- In preparation for her role, Emma Watson re-watched the cartoon “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) and took singing lessons.
26-Ian McKellen, who became the voice of Cogsworth in this film, was previously offered to voice Cogsworth in the cartoon “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), but then he refused.
27- The director selected shots similar to those in the original cartoon “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) for the film’s teaser trailer.
