This scene-setting mirrors that of the original animated film.
The one major departure?
“I was like, ‘What is she doing with her time?'”
“So, we made Belle an inventor.”
“You are the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen!”
Luke Evans’ Gaston declares.
Is he talking about Belle?
Evans' egomaniacal character is, we discover, looking in a mirror.
“But there’s a little more humanity.
He’s not as brash.
There’s a bit more to him in this story.
But, you know, he’s Gaston!
Definitely the main assets of him are there.”
“It’s really exciting.”
Beasts are famously bad with cutlery, as we discovered in the original film.
This shot of our couple drinking straight from the bowl is another strong nod to the 1991 movie.
“Have you really read every one of these books?”
“No,” snorts the Beast," some of them are in Greek."
Greek apparently being “all Greek” to Stevens' character.
Meanwhile, we hear Ariana Grande and John Legend performing their new version of the film’s title track.
So, yes, youre going to hear some unheard Howard Ashman lyrics."
“Emma is just transcendent in that scene,” says Condon.
“She learned to dance so beautifully and so confidently.
You just get swept up in her, more than anything.”
We get another look at the Audra McDonald-voiced Garderobe as the wardrobe covers a twirling Belle in material.
“Audra is incredibly funny as this Italian diva,” says Condon of the six-time Tony-winner.
“She just found this inner, wacky, crazy Italian woman and went for it.”
“Kill the beast!”
The trailer’s last image is, appropriately, of the Beast and Belle.
“I think the message is so absolutely true and always relevant,” says Condon.
“That we all get distracted by external beauty, and that true beauty lies within.”
