Bill Condon To Direct Live-Action ‘Beauty And The Beast’

It is a tale as old as time.  Just after the success of Disney’s live-action Sleeping Beauty spin-off Maleficent this past weekend, which grossed $170 million worldwide, another live-action fairy tale classic is on its way.

Bill Condon, best known for his feature adaptation of the musical Dreamgirls, has signed on to direct the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast for Disney. Mandeville Films will produce the film, and Evan Spiliotopoulos (Tarzan 2, The Jungle Book 2, and The Lion King 1 1/2) will write the script.

The animated feature of Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991 and grossed more than $425 million worldwide.

Condon, who won a screenwriting Oscar for Gods and Monsters, also directed Kinsey, The Fifth Estate, and Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2 in the Twilight saga.

It is apparent that with the success of Disney’s previous live-action releases, Alice in Wonderland (2010), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), and Oz:The Great and Powerful (2013), there is a huge market for more of these re-imagined Disney classics.

So much so that Disney is currently developing more live-action films, such as The Jungle Book, with Jon Favreau as the director. In early 2015, be on the look out for the re-imagined version of Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella, starring Downton Abbey’s Lily James as the fairy tale princess.