“Beauty & The Beast”: Disney Announces Release Date, More Cast

No, this feature image is NOT official, we just thought it looked AWESOME! Disney is currently raking in the dough from Kenneth Branagh’s live action version of Cinderella that opened over the weekend, and it would appear March is their sweet spot.

We’ve known for awhile that Disney has been planning to revamp many of their classic animated Princess tales in the coming years.  Arguably, Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent is what started the trend.  With planned adaptations of The Jungle Book, Dumbo, and Beauty And The Beast all in the works, it’ll be interesting to see what OTHER classics the House of Mouse brings back.

The cast thus far for Beauty And The Beast is Emma Watson (Harry Potter) as Belle, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as Beast/Prince Adam, Luke Evans (Dracula: Untold, The Hobbit) as Gaston, and Josh Gad (Frozen) as LeFou.  They have ALSO announced two further members of the cast, Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks) as Mrs. Potts and Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda) as Belle’s father, Crazy Old Maurice.

Time has also said the movie will feature the 1991 movie’s original songs, which were written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and new songs written by Menken and Tim Rice. (Ashman died before the original movie was released.) Songs written by Menken and Rice, which didn’t appear in the movie, were featured in the Broadway production of the show.

Just with this cast alone, I’m excited to see it.  Disney has announced Beauty And The Beast will come roaring into theaters March 17th, 2017.