"Harry Potter" alum Emma Watson plays Belle in "Beauty And The Beast." (Photo : Reuters)
Walt Disney Pictures officially announced that the live action motion picture "Beauty and Beast" in 3D starring Emma Watson, the famous Hermoine Granger of "Harry Potter" will be releasing on March 17th, 2017.
There will be more stars onboard in this project, at a later stage, Coming Soon reported. The film follows the story of the classic fairy tale and converts it into a modern version that younger generation could enjoy.
Watson stars as the beautiful belle in the movie while Dan Stevens plays the role of a prince, who's cursed to be a beast.
In the announcement, the production house confirmed that Emma Thompson will be joining the team to the play the role of Mrs. Potts and Kevin Kline to play as Belle's father. Previous reports added that Josh Gad from "Frozen" plays Lefou but his name was not in the list announced earlier today.
Alan Menken, the composer who won two Academy Awards in 1991 for the original classic cartoon will be composing music for the 3D remake of the movie. It will feature old classic songs as well as new additions. The new songs are handled by Sir Tim Rice and Menken.
The film has script done by Stephen Chbosky and is directed by Bill Condon. Chbosky earlier directed Watson for 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower". It will be producer by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman of Mandeville Films, according to Hollywood Reporter.
Watson was earlier signed up for another version of the movie with Warner Bros, supposed to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. But, the project didn't take off as planned which paved way for her to join this cast. The production will commence at Shepperton Studios in London this May.
