Beauty and the Beast (2017)
- The original script for Beauty and the Beast was written over a decade before production finally began in 2017.
- Bill Condon originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Bill Condon's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
Beauty and the Beast is a 2017 American musical romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon, a live-action adaptation of Disney's acclaimed 1991 animated film. Emma Watson stars as Belle, an intelligent, book-loving young woman in a provincial French village who becomes prisoner in the enchanted castle of the Beast, played by Dan Stevens through motion-capture and vocal performance. As Belle discovers that the castle's servants have been transformed into household objects and learns the story behind the Beast's curse, an unlikely romance develops that may hold the key to breaking the spell.
The 2017 Beauty and the Beast was the most commercially successful entry in Disney's wave of live-action remakes of their animated classics. Emma Watson, internationally beloved as Hermione Granger, brought an appropriate combination of intelligence and defiance to Belle, though her singing voice β enhanced with auto-tune according to some audio engineers β was debated. The film's most discussed moment was the inclusion of a brief scene suggesting the character of LeFou, played by Josh Gad, has romantic feelings for Gaston, which was widely publicized as Disney's first openly gay moment.
Luke Evans's charismatic, darkly funny portrayal of Gaston was praised as one of the film's strongest elements. The production design meticulously recreated the animated film's environments in practical sets, while the CGI household objects β including Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts β were designed to balance their animated personalities with photorealistic rendering.
Beauty and the Beast earned $1.26 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2017 and the tenth highest-grossing film of all time at that point.
