Bill Condon to Direct Disney's Live-Action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
With the success of Maleficent, Disney is looking to move fast on their live-action feature film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. The studio has hired Twilight: Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon to bring the story to life.
No official plot details have been released, but it's Beauty and the Beast! I'm pretty sure you can figure it out. The script is being written by Evan Spiliotopoulos, who has written a ton of Disney's direct to video animated films.
The studio's 1991 animated movie was nominated for an Academy Award, pulled in more that $375 million, and spawned a fantastic Broadway show.
Disney is also in the process of developing live-action versions of The Jungle Book, which is being directed by Jon Favreau, and Cinderella, which Kenneth Branagh is taking on.
Condon also directed the musical Dreamgirls, and I think Beauty and the Beast will be a good film project for him. I imagine that it will have the same visual feel as all of the other live-action adaptations Disney has made such as Alice in Wonderland, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Maleficent.
Source: Variety