"The Hobbit" star Luke Evans is in talks with Disney to feature as Gaston in the upcoming Disney live-action "Beauty and the Beast". In case the deal is finalized then he would star opposite Emma Watson, who is the lead actress for the movie, as per reports by The Wrap. Bill Condon is going to direct the movie.
It looks like Evans is all set to sign on the dotted line as an affirmation for the role, because he tweeted on the popular social networking site Twitter about the news, yet there has been no official confirmation from Disney, according to China Topix.
However, it is surprising to note that Luke Evans was not the first choice for the role. The producers wanted the Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne to portray the character, but the "The Theory of Everything" star passed up the opportunity. And then the producers were left with no choice but to approach Evans for the role.
The female lead in the "Beauty and the Beast" is Emma Watson and this has been confirmed by Emma herself. She even quipped that she needed to start singing lessons to do ample justice to the role. And now that she has Evans as the lead actor, perhaps she does need to take those singing lessons seriously as he is a well known actor and a singer to boot.
The star of "Fast & Furious 6" has had ample experience in musicals as he has been an integral part of numerous London-based productions like "Avenue Q", "Miss Saigon" and "Rent".