Luke Evans to Play Gaston in Disney's Live-Action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

After playing bad guys in movies like Fast & Furious 6 and Dracula Untold, Luke Evans is returning to the dark side to play Gaston in Disney's live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Variety has the news, and they say that Evans is currently negotiating for the part. Emma Watson will play Belle for director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) with a script by Evan Spiliotopoulos and a rewrite by The Perks of Being A Wallflower writer/director Steve Chbosky.

Evans isn't the first name that comes to mind when I think of Gaston (someone like Dwayne Johnson would be AMAZING), but I think he has the right amount of swagger to play the role. Gaston was always my favorite Beauty and the Beast character just because of how ridiculously idiotic and over-the-top he was, and if this version is anything like how he appears in the animated classic, it should be a really fun role to play for Evans. Here's hoping he's at least as good as the guy who plays Gaston at Disney World, who destroyed someone in a push-up contest not too long ago.