Well after finding out two years ago that Guillermo del Toro (‘Pacific Rim‘,’The Strain‘) was set to direct Warner Brothers upcoming ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ it looks as if he will be stepping out of that role though not out of the film’s production. While he is still on as a producer for the film, he isn’t able to stay in the director’s chair due to scheduling conflicts. With ‘Pacific Rim 2‘, ‘The Strain’, ‘Justice League Dark‘, ‘Monster‘, and ‘Crimson Peak‘ being just some of the projects the man has in the works, I can imagine that scheduling conflicts is an understatement in his world.
While del Toro will remain on as a producer with Denise DiNovi, the studio clearly has to move forward on the project as Bill Condon (‘Dreamgirls’) has a a big live-action musical adaptation of the story over at Disney currently being worked on. Currently Emma Watson (‘This Is The End‘, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2‘) is still set to star in the leading role on the film as Warner Brothers scrambles to find a replacement director.
Classic Disney being turned to the big screen has been well received with the recently released ‘Maleficent‘ on the big screen and ‘Once Upon A Time‘ on the small screen. With films such as ‘Pan‘ also getting live action treatments soon this appears to be poised to be quite a profitable trend. That is, as long as the films come together in a timely manner and continue to appeal to a wide range of age groups for an audience. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ isn’t the only film that the studio will be competing with Disney, however, as they both have their own live action takes on ‘The Jungle Book’ planned with Warner Brothers having Andy Serkis on theirs and Disney giving Jon Favreau (‘Cowboys & Aliens’, ‘Iron Man’) a shot at the film.
Are you glad to hear that del Toro won’t be tackling ‘Beauty and the Beast’ for Warner Brothers? Who do you think they should be lining up to replace him and what project do you think is giving the scheduling conflict here?
Source: Collider
