‘Beauty and the Beast’: Ian McKellen to Play Cogsworth
The Walt Disney Company is on top of the world right now. Their purchase of Marvel Entertainment in 2009 has brought in billions of dollars from The Avengers and the rest of the superhero movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And later this year, they’re set to bring back the Star Wars franchise with what will be the first of many films and spinoff films already in development.
Plus, let’s not forget about Disney’s animated classics, which are currently being remade into live-action films. Hot on the heels of their success with Maleficent and Cinderella, Walt Disney Studios has recently put into development live-action versions of Mulan, Pinocchio, The Jungle Book and even Dumbo.
So basically any actor would be crazy not to join in on the fun somewhere, including Ian McKellen, who, according to Variety, is now attached to play Cogsworth in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. In the original animated feature film, Cogsworth was the Beast’s chief steward who got turned into a clock when a curse befell the castle. The character’s partner-in-crime Lumičre has still not been cast.
McKellen will be joined in the film by Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as Le Fou, Audra McDonald as Garderobe and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts. Bill Condon is directing from a script by The Perks of Being a Wallflower writer Stephen Chbosky.
The British actor is, of course, no stranger to starring in blockbuster tentpoles after his time as Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings as well as The Hobbit and as Magneto in the X-Men series. But it seemed with his starring turn in indie movie Mr. Holmes that McKellen would take a break from big-budget films for a little while. Yet interestingly enough, Condon also directed Mr. Holmes, so it’s possible their recent partnership convinced McKellen to join him on Beauty and the Beast.
What will be even more interesting is seeing just who they cast as Lumičre. The friendship between the two servants with very opposing personalities is one of the highlights of the original animated film. And although he’s not French, wouldn’t it be amazing if Patrick Stewart was cast as Lumičre?
But what do you think about McKellen joining Beauty and the Beast, Screen Rant readers? Are you excited to see the film based on the cast so far? Let us know in the comments.
Beauty and the Beast opens in U.S. theaters on March 17th, 2017.
