Luke Evans to play Gaston in live action Beauty and the Beast

While they have yet to find their Beast, Disney has found their live action Gaston for Bill Condon‘s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. After tackling Middle Earth and the Dracula mythology, Luke Evans will play Belle’s chauvinist love interest in the film. The film will be written by THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER’s Stephen Chbosky and will be a musical inspired by the Oscar-winning 1991 animated film.

Emma Watson, who plays Belle, was previously linked to the Guillermo Del Toro version of the movie. When that fizzled out, she joined the latest in Disney’s growing library of live action takes on their animated masterpieces. Disney has CINDERELLA opening this month as well as versions of THE JUNGLE BOOK and PETE’S DRAGON slated in the next couple of years. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will begin production this year.

Evans seems like perfect casting for Gaston as he is able to exude equal parts sex appeal and douche-baggery as evidenced in FAST 6. His musical chops will be called into question as the iconic Disney numbers from the film and Broadway musical will be hard to recreate in a live action movie. Condon as experience having worked on DREAMGIRLS, but you really don’t want to mess with Disney fans.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST currently has no release date but I would expect to see it hit late 2016.


Source: Variety

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Alex Maidy has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. A Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and a member of Chicago Indie Critics, Alex has been JoBlo.com's primary TV critic and ran columns including Top Ten and The UnPopular Opinion. When not riling up fans with his hot takes, Alex is an avid reader and aspiring novelist.