Director Christophe Gans may not be the first choice that pops into your mind when it comes to an adaptation of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. After all, most people's vision of the film comes from the famed 1991 Walt Disney film, which is a fairly light and easy affair. If you really want to show your age, you could reference the TV show starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. Or, on the flipside, the ill-received BEASTLY (or the currently running show with Kristin Kreuk). Gans, who directed the excellent BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF and the first SILENT HILL, has got style and depth with a keen sense of the darker side of things, so I think it would be safe to say that there won't be any talking teapots in his version.
The director released this statement to go along with the first image from the film, showing Vincent Cassell as The Beast and Lea Seydoux as Beauty:
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is the adaptation of a story by Madame de Villeneuve. Published anonymously in 1740 as La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins, it paints a portrait of Belle, a joyful and touching young girl who falls in love with the Beast, a cursed creature in search of love and redemption. In 1760, a condensed children’s version was published. It was from this version that Jean Cocteau and then Walt Disney drew their famous adaptations. Overshadowed, the original version by Madame de Villeneuve has never been adapted for the screen… until now!
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is the story of a family going through a crisis, having lost all of its possessions when the father was ruined. The encounter – at first terrifying, but then voluptuous – with this mythical Beast provides our characters with an opportunity to get back on their feet. I like to think that this film is a metaphor for the situation that is currently afflicting the world. That is one of the advantages of fairy tales, to present an ensemble of values that endure through the ages.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST speaks, among other things, of the power of dreams and love over materialism and corruption – a theme more topical now than ever. It was time to pay tribute to Madame de Villeneuve’s story: an amazingly contemporary tale, in which the poem of love is also a message of hope.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is currently in post-production with a release date expected for sometime in 2014.
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