The image is part of the filmmakers' plan to fill out the main characters' back stories.
“Who are the characters?
Where did they come from?
Disney
What kind of human being was the Beast?
What was his mother?
What was his father?”
Next, we follow Maurice the father of Belle as he is captured by the Beast.
But wecansay for certain that he is played by Oscar-winningA Fish Called Wandastar Kevin Kline.
“I loved working with Kevin so much,” says Watson.
“He became a dear friend.
“Do you wish to take your father’s place?”
asks an unseen, though beastly-sounding, voice.
Which leads us to…
…our first proper look at Dan Stevens' Beast.
“There was the physical puppeteering and [then] the facial stuff,” he says.
It felt like pure magic how they fused these two experiences together.”
After the Beast instructs his magic mirror to “Show me the girl!”
“What if she is the one?”
asks Lumiere, “The one who break the spell?”
The staff are depicted very differently in the new version.
Why did director Bill Condon take this photo-realistic approach rather than aping their cartoonish look in the original?
“Because then why do it, right?”
“Then its just the other movie.
The whole point here is now we’re able to do this.
“So, this poor kid had to go to school every day with this secret.
It was driving him absolutely crazy!”
After fleeing the castle, Belle is beset by wolves, who are seen off by The Beast.
“He’s very, very funny and just perfect as Gaston,” says Watson.
“It was lit beyond beautifully,” says producer Hoberman.
“I gave a little speech after we finished.
So, yes, you’re going to hear some unheard Howard Ashman lyrics.”
Lumiere’s dance partner is the feather duster Plumette, voiced byBlack Mirroractress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
“Everybody else got to go to the read-through, and we did some rehearsals,” says Condon.
“But she and Ewan were both shooting, almost until they arrived.
So, they were thrown in the deep end.
She was an unbelievable trooper and really pulled it off.”
You’ll have to wait until March 17 to find out.
