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With Disney’s Beauty and the Beast arriving in theaters this weekend, I recently sat down with director Bill Condon to talk about making the film. During the interview he joked about how much he paid to direct the film, if they made any big changes during the 15-month edit, how the Blu-ray will have around 9 minutes of deleted scenes and what some of them were, how they brought Beast to life and if he was ever going to be prosthetic, and if they will ever release a version of the film without any effects so you can see Dan Stevens on stilts.

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Image via Disney

Beauty and the Beast was scripted by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos with music by Disney veteran Alan Menken. The film stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as Beast, Josh Gad as Le Fou, Luke Evans as Gaston, Ewan McGregor as Lumière, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, and Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Stanley Tucci as Cadenza, Kevin Kline as Maurice, and Tony Award winner Audra McDonald as Garderobe.

Check out what Bill Condon had to say in the video above, and below is exactly what we talked about followed by the official synopsis and some recent links.

Bill Condon:

  • What did he pay to direct Beauty and the Beast?
  • Talks about editing the film for 15 months with 2,000 effects shots.
  • Any big changes during the edit? Says his first cut was 20 minutes longer.
  • Any deleted scenes?
  • Says they have 9 minutes of deleted scenes on the Blu-ray/DVD.
  • How did they bring Beast to life?
  • Will they ever release a version of the film without any effects so you can see Dan Stevens on set?
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Image via Disney

Here’s the official synopsis for Beauty and the Beast:

“Beauty and the Beast” is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast’s hideous exterior and realize the kind heart and soul of the true Prince within.

Check out more of the footage we’ve seen from the film so far in the links below.

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Image via Disney
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Image via Disney
beauty-and-the-beast-movie-image-emma-watson-bill-condon
Image via Disney

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