Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in Beauty and the Beast
Highlights
- Dan Stevens is unrecognizable under his Beast make-up
- From Hermione to Belle, Emma Watson's still plucky, bookish
- Luke Evans plays antagonistic hunter Gaston in the film
The first trailer of the live action
Beauty and the Beast film released on Monday, beginning the week with a bang. The Disney film remakes the animated 1991 version with Emma Watson and
Downton Abbey alumnus Dan Stevens playing Belle and the cursed Beast.
Luke Evans and Kevin Kline fill the remaining live action lead roles. Luke, seen as the heroic Bard in
The Hobbit trilogy, is cast here as antagonistic hunter Gaston. Kevin Kline plays Belle's father, an eccentric inventor.
The rest of the major cast have been recruited to voice the household staff-turned-objects that populate the Beast's castle - and what a cast it is: Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci lead a list of notables.
Lumiere, Cogsworth and other beloved characters from the Disney original have all been given the CGI treatment here.
For Emma Watson, plucky, bookish Belle
seems a natural progression from plucky, bookish Hermione of the
Harry Potter films.
Dan Stevens, much loved as
Downton Abbey's Matthew Crawley and seen as a comic Lancelot in
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, is unrecognizable under his Beast make-up - there's a treat in store for both Belle and the audience when the curse is finally lifted.
Watch the trailer of
Beauty and the Beast:
The trailer of
Beauty and the Beast was preceded by a teaser last May, watched on YouTube over 90 million times since.
Beauty and the Beast releases on March 17, 2017.