Disney’s next live-action fairy tale could be ‘Beauty and the Beast’

Alice in Wonderland was a box office smash, Oz The Great And Powerful earned a fantastic debut and Maleficent is already in production. So what’s the next fairy tale Disney is set to translate to live action? It could be Beauty and the Beast, according to a report.

Deadline reported on Monday that the studio is talking with writer Joe Ahearne, who just finished working with Oscar-winner Danny Boyle on Trance. The hire makes it sound as if Disney is ready to take a darker turn with Beast.

Disney is already working on Maleficent, a Sleepy Beauty film that will star Angelina Jolie as the villain and focus on her. That film’s due out in 2014. There’s also the success of Oz, which debuted to $80 million this weekend.

The studio is also in the early stages of a Cinderella film, which may have lost its lead actress. Earlier this month, Emma Watson was linked, but Variety confirmed that she has turned it down.

Interestingly, FirstShowing notes that back in 2011, there were rumors that Guillermo Del Toro would produce a version of the Beast tale which would star Watson. It looks like del Toro has moved on from that idea, though, since he’s got projects like Pacific Rim on his plate now.

Disney turned Beauty and the Beast into an animated film in 1991 and it became the first animated movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. It was also recently re-released in 3D and spawned the successful Broadway show.