French Trailer for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Shows a Dark, Rich Adventure

I'll admit it, I'm still a sucker for a good costume drama/folk tale. Not the Disney-fied ones that sanitize, but ones that harken back to the dark underbelly of those tales are warnings and cautions about morality and behaviour. And so I was very excited when I first heard that Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Silent Hill) was going back to original original story by Madame de Villeneuve l for his version of Beauty and the Beast, my expectations starting rising.

Now, we have the first trailer. It certainly looks like a Gans film: full of rich colour, a creepy castle, a dark villain (This time around, Vincent Cassel seems to be getting the whole lion's body), a beautiful maid, intrigue, and hefty historical context to flesh out the narrative. Certainly, parts of it gravitate towards high fantasy, and I'm a little unsure about what seems to be a Disney-like animal companion (though I haven't read the original story, so it might be in there). But this is made for the big screen, and Gans proved with Brotherhood of the Wolf that he's not afraid to go dark, violent and scary, while still providing some romance.

It's due for release in France in February. No word yet on a North American date. Please note: the trailer is in French, without subtitles.