Emma Watson Finds A Familiar Castle In The First Teaser Trailer For ‘Beauty And The Beast’

Following the box-office success of Maleficent, Disney’s live-action retelling of its cartoon classic Sleeping Beauty from the villain’s perspective, the studio has been itching for more. Hence director Bill Condon’s upcoming live-action remake of the 1991 animated classic, Beauty and the Beast. The presumably CGI-heavy film won’t hit American theaters until March 17, 2017, but the first teaser trailer just went live — promising fans of the Academy Award-winning original a faithful, but entirely new version of the song-filled story. Yes, that’s right — we get to see and hear Sir Ian McKellen sing his ol’ heart out.

The new movie stars semi-retired actress Emma Watson as Belle, Ewan McGregor as the candlestick Lumiere, McKellen as the clock Cogsworth, and a host of other famous faces and voices. And like the ridiculously good (and bankable) Jungle Book live-action remake before it, it seems Beauty and the Beast won’t stray as far from its original hand-drawn source material as Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent did. That’s not to say that such reimaginings are a bad thing, but when it comes to young mademoiselles stumbling into dark and seemingly abandoned castles populated by a surly beast and his dancing dishware, it’s best not to fiddle too much.

Besides, with McGregor’s upcoming role(s) in Fargo, it’s probably for the best that Lumiere not turn out to be a raving, homicidal lunatic.

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