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Tag: Beauty and the Beast

  • Emma Watson Ventures Into Singing For Another Revamped Fairytale

    Emma Watson won the world over with her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movie series, and now she’s ready to tackle the next in a line of reimagined fairytales, Beauty and the Beast.

    Emma Watson has tons of experience in support roles, like her roles in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring, Noah and This Is the End.

    But, Emma Watson has never played in a featured role. Until now.

    Emma Watson has signed on to play Belle in the new Beauty and the Beast remake that is schedule to come out next year.

    Of course, she won’t have any trouble acting, but the singing, that might be a different story.

    Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and I at Davos World Economic Forum last week #heforshe

    A photo posted by Emma Watson (@emmawatson) on

    Post by Emma Watson.

    She announced the big news via Facebook, saying, “It was such a big part of my growing up, it almost feels surreal that I’ll get to dance to ‘Be Our Guest’ and sing ‘Something There’.”

    Emma Watson told Total Film of the new role, “I sing, so that’s really unexpected. I’ve never had to do that for a film before, and I think people will be interested to see me do something very different like that.”

    She added, “It gives me a different challenge, really. That’s terrifying in and of itself!”

    A photo posted by Emma Watson (@emmawatson) on

    That would be terrifying, even for the most seasoned actor. However, Emma Watson seems up to the challenge.

    “It feels like I was building a portfolio over the last five, six years. Now I feel like I’m ready to really be carrying films. I’m really just ready now to focus on my career full time and go full steam ahead,” Emma Watson said.

    She added, “It’s exciting at the moment.”

    What do you think of Emma Watson playing Belle in the new Beauty and the Beast?

  • Emma Watson Just a Little Freaked About Singing in ‘Beauty and the Beast’

    Emma Watson, who has been cast as Belle in the live-action movie version of Beauty and the Beast, is thrilled about the part. However, there is one aspect of the gig that freaks her out just a bit.

    “I sing, so that’s really unexpected,” Emma Watson told Total Film. “I’ve never had to do that for a film before, and I think people will be interested to see me do something very different like that.”

    Watson added, “It gives me a different challenge, really. That’s terrifying in and of itself!”

    Emma Watson will join Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame, who will play the Beast, and Luke Evans, who will play Gaston.

    In a January Facebook post announcing the role, Emma Watson said the Disney film “was such a big part of my growing up, it almost feels surreal that I’ll get to dance to Be Our Guest and sing Something There.”

    In preparation for the singing, the actress made it clear that she would be taking singing lessons before production begins.

    Although Emma Watson is a household name, she has yet to take the leading role in a major Hollywood production. However, after co-starring roles in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring, Noah and This Is the End, Watson feels she is up to the task.

    “It feels like I was building a portfolio over the last five, six years. Now I feel like I’m ready to really be carrying films. I’m really just ready now to focus on my career full time and go full steam ahead,” said Emma Watson. “It’s exciting at the moment.”

  • Angela Lansbury Wows London Audience in ‘Blithe Spirit’

    Angela Lansbury wowed a London audience this week in her return to the West End stage. The 88-year-old is playing the role of medium Madame Arcati in Noel Coward’s stage farce. It is the first time she has appeared on a London theater stage in almost 40 years. Critics seem to absolutely love her.

    The Daily Telegraph’s Charles Spencer wrote about her “astonishing energy and comic panache.”

    “Thirty-five years ago I remember being bowled over by Lansbury’s performance as Mrs Lovett in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd on Broadway. She brings a similar energy and high definition wit to Madame Arcati,” he wrote. “Her voice swoops and soars with superb grandeur and her extraordinary dance routine, in which she seems physically to vibrate as she goes into a trance, is a wonder to behold.”

    “This is a tour de force that will glow warmly in the memory of all who see it,” he concluded.

    That’s a pretty darn impressive critique for an 88-year-old actress.

    Probably best known for her role as Jessica Fletcher in the hit TV series Murder, She Wrote, Angela Lansbury also voiced the role of Mrs. Potts in the Disney film Beauty and the Beast–in both dialogue and song. The above video clip shows her performing the beloved theme from the award winning movie.

    Following her very successful opening night in London on Tuesday, Lansbury said “being back in London felt very natural and terrific.”

    Angela Lansbury made Queen Elizabeth’s ‘Honours List’ for 2014, meaning she is a dame at 88–the female equivalent to knighthood. It seems good things definitely come to those who wait. She has, of course, done lots of remarkable thing in the meantime. She is definitely one classy and incredibly talented dame.

    Image via Wikimedia Common

  • The Little Mermaid: Emma Watson Rumors a Hoax

    Recently fans of the Harry Potter films began to flutter when rumors surfaced about Emma Watson (aka Hermione) portraying Ariel in a live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

    According to the Examiner, online talk circulated at the end of February about Watson taking on several roles as Disney princesses: Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Ariel.

    Some saw her leaving a Los Angeles aquatic facility and assumed she was being trained in SCUBA and and synchronized swimming for the classic role of the Disney mermaid.

    There was even talk of Danielle Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) stepping in to the role of Prince Eric.

    Buzz continued when a movie poster, complete with a red-haired Watson, surfaced.

    However, the excitement was squashed last week when the rumor was revealed to be a hoax, and a dated one at that.

    It started on April 1, 2013 when a Harry Potter fansite, Mugglenet, created the story as an April Fool’s joke.

    The full hoax report read, “Emma Watson will certainly be living the princess lifestyle this year, after reports have linked her to different projects where she will portray classic Disney princesses Belle from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ as well as the title role in ‘Cinderella’ (although Emma has since turned down that role). Completing the trio is Ariel, from ‘The Little Mermaid,’ originally released as an animated feature in 1989.”

    It is unclear why the rumor resurfaced. Perhaps it has to do with reports that Watson will indeed be playing Belle in Guillermo del Toro’s Beauty and the Beast.

    According to MTV News, Guillermo del Toro is close to casting a monstrous co-star for Watson.

    “We are weeks away from getting who plays the Beast,” del Toro said. “We’re talking to the makeup effects guys who are going to render the Beast. We’re going to do a solid, fantastic makeup job. We’re going to fuse digital and makeup in a way that I think is quite cutting edge.”

    23-year old Watson was most recently seen at the 2014 Academy Awards in Los Angeles. She will also be seen with Russell Crowe in the upcoming film, Noah, where she will portray Noah’s adopted daughter, Ila.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Kristin Kreuk Talks Season 2 of Beauty and the Beast

    The Season 1 finale of “Beauty and the Beast” saw lead character Catherine Chandler, played by Kristin Kreuk, feeling helpless as her love interest and super-soldier, Vincent Keller, was captured after his intense brawl with Gabe. The scene ended with Kreuk’s character discovering that the person she thought was her father was not actually her biological father.

    Kristin Kreuk has now released some more information concerning the direction of Season 2, and luckily for fans, the “VinCat” relationship will not be missed. However, there will be some new elements this season that will test the two lead characters’ relationship: “We are interested in exploring some triangles, so we will have another character coming in who will challenge VinCat. Just when it seems like things are going well, someone will come in and challenge [that]…and lead them to wonder, ‘Should I be with this person instead?’” stated show writer Sherri Cooper.

    Not only will VinCat have to deal with outside factors affecting their relationship, but the couple will also face internal strife within their relationship. After Vincent reappears from his capture, it is evident that there has been some “re-education” of his previous soldier experience: “… there’s this man, who’s the person that she put everything into and she held all of her crap together to try and just find him and when he looks like the person that she knew, he feels like the person that she knew, but he’s not, and she has this moment of being able to emotionally like let go and release all this stuff, but it’s with a man who is so different,” stated Kreuk.

    Kreuk’s character, Catherine, will be dealing with her own personal issues as well: “Catherine hasn’t paid her bills; she’s got her bills stacked up; she doesn’t sleep; she drinks coffee; she’s on her computer; she’s constantly trying to find this guy. … She’s not even doing work anymore. She’s got Tess taking care of all the work. She’s so focused on it. She has nothing else.”

    Due to the two lead characters going through such dynamic changes, Jay Ryan says it will be as if the two are learning to fall in love all over again: “The whole season for everybody is, ‘Who am I?’ For Vincent, he has no idea who he is because it’s all been zapped away. When Catherine throws him this lifeline, and he lets her in again, he realizes that he actually is somebody who has a purpose in this world other than to follow orders. It’s kind of interesting to allow them to fall in love all over again, and for her to chisel away at this new guy.”

    Despite having to rebuild their relationship, Kreuk assures viewers that the first episode of Season 2 will not disappoint those who watch the show for its romance factor: “Oh, it’s a really intense episode. The show’s pace is going up this season, so a lot is happening. We’re three months ahead; three months has passed since the finale, so they’re getting filled in on a lot of what happened during that time. It’s going to be kind of achingly romantic.”

    With “Charmed” showrunner and executive producer Brad Kern joining the team, Kreuk also states that this season will focus more on the mythological elements of the plot. Whatever the plot, it is unlikely that the “Beasties” will turn away from the show, as long as the steamy VinCat relationship stays in-tact.

    The Season 2 premiere airs tonight on the CW at 9 PM EST.

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