Beauty and the Beast trailer: Emma Watson stars in live-action remake

Disney fans got a glimpse of the new Beauty and the Beast film on Monday, with the studio unveiling a two-minute trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation of its popular 1991 animated movie.

Harry Potter actress Emma Watson stars as heroine Belle while Downton Abbey actor Dan Stevens plays Beast/Prince Adam in the film, which is a new take on the classic fairy tale about a romance between a girl and her monstrous captor.

In the trailer, Belle can be seen meeting the beast for the first time, and there are also glimpses of characters such as Lumiere and Mrs Potts, voiced respectively by Ewan McGregor and Emma Thompson. The film is scheduled for release in March 2017.

The first trailer for the film, which was was released in May, became the then-most-viewed promo in its first 24 hours (which meant beating Star Wars: Rogue One).

The remake takes the hugely-successful 1991 cartoon as its starting point; that made $375m worldwide. Disney’s remake of The Jungle Book from earlier this year is edging towards the $1bn mark; similar treatments for Cinderella and Maleficent were also successes.

In the works are live-action remakes of Dumbo, Sword in the Stone, Aladdin, Mulan, Pinocchio, Snow White, and two of The Little Mermaid.– (Reuters, Guardian Service)