Earlier today, the first look at Emma Watson’s Belle and Dan Stevens’s Beast was unveiled along with a series of movie stills from the live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast”.
Like any good remake, a few changes is to be expected, such as new songs, new characters and altered appearances. One of the more interesting changes will come in the form of the movie’s female protagonist, Belle. In addition to being an avid reader, the new “Beauty and the Beast” will also be turning her into an inventor.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Watson noted how the original animation didn’t provide much explanation on why Belle was an outcast other than the fact that she was a bookworm. So the new adaptation decided to give fans a more detailed insight into this iconic character’s backstory by expanding her intellectual pursuits.
“In the animated movie, it’s her father who is the inventor, and we actually co-opted that for Belle. I was like, ‘Well, there was never very much information or detail at the beginning of the story as to why Belle didn’t fit in, other than she liked books. Also what is she doing with her time?’ So, we created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read instead. So, yeah, we made Belle an inventor,” said the actress.
In one of the promotional released pictures, we also see Belle and her father Maurice behind a work table, surrounded by music boxes. In the forthcoming Bill Condon-directed movie, Maurice will simply be a music box maker, while the music boxes seen in the image above will add another layer to Belle’s backstory.
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“Kevin Kline as Maurice, is making all these music boxes that have to tell the story of Belle not traveling. She’s overprotected in a way, by her father, because she’s lost her mother. So, we’ve made all these music boxes that represent different countries of the world, so she can see what she’s missing,” set decorator Katie Spencer told EW.
After spending the majority of her time at her home and village, Belle will finally embark on an adventure similar to the ones in her story books where she will come face to face with a true Beast.
“Beauty and the Beast” will hit cinemas on 17th March 2017.
Sources: Cinema Blend, Screen Rant.
