DVDizzy Forum

Disney's Divinity wrote:Now I'm just crossing my fingers they pick someone perfect for Lumiere!

Atlantica wrote:Absolutely perfect casting

I wonder if they'll be CG or costumed a la the stage show ?

Musical Master wrote:Really good casting and I sure hope it's a very good adaptation of the musical version which I really liked due to fleshing out Belle and the Beast's relationship when I thought the animated film did a really good job at doing.

DisneyJedi wrote: I'm wondering if they'll be entirely furniture (animated film) or humans slowly turning into objects (Broadway show).

Q: Can you talk about your role in Beauty and the Beast and whether or not your kids are excited about it?

Josh Gad: Look, I've worn out the Frozen welcome in my house, so I needed something to win back their affection. And Beauty and the Beast, it’s funny, because it’s just as much for me as it is for the kids. It was my Frozen, I like to call it. I was kind of that age when I first saw that movie, it was everything to me. And like Little Mermaid and Aladdin and Lion King, it was one of those movies that I saw over and over again in the theater and was memorized by the songs, by the storytelling. And so to now bring those characters to life in a way only Disney can do, I’m really excited about it and I’m excited that it’s going to give me the opportunity to do my first live-action musical, which I haven’t been afforded before.

Q: I'm a huge Bill Condon fan and you're getting ready to work with him.

Josh Gad: I'm so excited. I adore him as much as you do. He's so brilliantly inventive and I can tell you having spoken to him ad nauseam about what they're cooking up for Beauty and the Beast, it's going to be a pretty special movie.

Q: What were those initial table reads like [for Beauty and the Beast]?

Josh Gad: Well, Sir Ian McKellen did a Facebook post that captured the essence of that table read. It was one of the most magical things I've been a part of. Emma Thompson getting up and singing her incredible rendition of the famous song. Just being there in that room and seeing what Bill Condon was dreaming up. It’s going to blow people’s minds. It’s exactly what you want it to be. It’s an amazing tribute, but it’s also creating its own new territory. I think people are going to flip out.

Q: How are you guys pulling [Beauty and the Beast] off? Are you going to be in costume? What's happening? What are you allowed to reveal?

Josh Gad: You will see. I can tell you that it's going to blow people's mind with what they're doing. The world that Bill Condon is creating is nothing short of astounding. In my opinion, the only way to adapt this movie is the way that they're doing it. I think what's been so amazing about Disney's track-record with these fairy tale live adaptations is that each one of them has built on its predecessor in a unique way. This is the first one that is really owning what the source material is, in this case the '91 animated film, and embracing every aspect of it including the music. I think there was a time where they thought about doing it without the music and you just can't. And that to me is the most exciting proposition. You're going to get to see all your favorite songs come to life in a way you can't even possibly imagine. This movie is not only going to honor [the original] but build on it.

Josh Gad wrote:I guess for me, Beauty and the Beast was what Frozen is to a lot of kids today. It’s one of those movies that when it came out, you remember, we were all just “What is this?! This is the craziest movie ever!” And so now, being able to translate that to a live-action format and being able to sing these incredible songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken and Tim Rice. It’s a dream come true for the entire cast and myself, so get ready for that. It’s going to be really special.

Josh Gad wrote:Why a live version of [Beauty and the Beast]? Disney has had unbelievable success as of late with re-adapting fairy tale movies as live-action. Cinderella which is unbelievable, Maleficent which is wonderful, Alice in Wonderland... They've been doing this. This is the first time that they've adapted a previous film that they've done and retained that special element of the music written in this case by Alan Menken, Tim Rice and of course, the late Howard Ashman. Brilliant songs: Be Our Guest, Gaston, all these indelible classics. So, they're bringing all of that magic to life in a way that I think is going to blow people away. Bill Condon, who's a phenomenal director, is directing it. The cast is just extraordinary: Emma Watson, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor... In Beauty and the Beast, I'm playing a character named Le Fou who is Gaston's sidekick whereas I like to think Gaston as my sidekick.

Q: Disney also just announced they're doing a live-action Beauty and the Beast and you're going to be in that.

Josh Gad: I'm actually headed back to London next week. I was there for about a week and a half and it's like summer camp right now 'cause it's the pre-production joy of singing and dancing, horseback-riding, which surprisingly doesn't come naturally to me. I'm thrilled. Beauty and the Beast is for me what Frozen is to a lot of today's kids. It's an indelible classic that I look fondly on and back at and remember exactly where I was when I was it for the first time. Just hearing those songs, Be Our Guest, and of course, Gaston was such a thrill. To see it all being fully realized is incredible. I wish I could share more specifics but I'm excited for people to see what they're dreaming up right now because it's unbelievable. [Bill Condon] is an extraordinary talent. He really is. Whether it's his theatrical work like the short-lived but genius Sideshow or any of his movies, Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls... He's enormous. He's brilliant. At the core, this film is an emotional journey that happens to have spectacle all over it and that emotional journey I think is right in his wheelhouse.

Q: Do you get to sing for Beauty and the Beast?

Josh Gad: Yes. It is a musical adaptation. It is amazing to be a part of the film because it is the first time any of these movies have been adapted with that element. You have Cinderella which was amazing but not a musical, Maleficent, which was amazing but not a musical, you have Alice in Wonderland, again not a musical. So for us to embrace the amazing canon that Alan Menken, Tim Rice and Howard Ashley created. I sing at the most inopportune moments. If you around me for long enough I just break out into song.

Q: And obviously, you're working on a musical right now. Can you talk to us a little about what's happening there?

Josh Gad: Beauty and the Beast? I can tell you it's going to be just really amazing. Bill Condon is doing a remarkable job of bringing this world that we've all fallen in love with ever since the animated classic come out to life. The cast they've assembled: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Sir Ian Mckellen, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor, the list goes on and on. A+ cast and I think it's going to be really special. I play LeFou and I have a big number in which I'm thrilled I get to sing and dance. It's great. I've never done a live-action musical before. We got here about a month before shooting to rehearse all the singing and dancing and it was like doing theater. It was really just fun.

Q: All of your scenes will be with Gaston. So, that's Luke Evans. Is it fun to playing off Luke?

Josh Gad: Luke is going to blow people away. He's so funny in this movie and killer pipes. He's great. Everybody's great.

Q: What was that first table read like?

Josh Gad: It was unlike anything I've ever been a part of before because it was just so epic. You almost felt like all it was missing was an audience of 7,000 because it was just full on. Usually a table read is a very intimate affair; you're all sitting there with your scripts and engaging by virtue of hearing it out loud, that's where it ends. This, we were seeing full performances done, we were seeing full pre-visualization of some of these incredibly complex scenes. It was unlike anything I've ever been a part of and probably will ever be a part of. It was just full on.

Currently, Gad’s in the UK filming Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast. He’s playing LeFou, who was drawn rotund, gap-toothed and goofy in the animated classic. The actor laughs there was “great offence taken” at being offered that role in human form.

“I was in a reading for Beauty and the Beast sitting next to Sir Ian McKellen, watching this man make minced meat of all of us ... Actually, let me rephrase that: I’m sitting sandwiched between Emma Thompson and Sir Ian McKellen... You look at them and go, ‘God, I’ve got years and years and years of stuff to learn’.”

Josh Gad wrote:I'm part of a live feature adaptation of the classic animated movie "Beauty and the the Beast" starring Emma Watson. Bill Condon who directed it has done an amazing job of not only honoring the original but bringing a whole new wealth of material to one of the great Disney classics. I think people are going to be blown away when it comes out.

Josh Gad will be playing the role of LeFou in Beauty and the Beast and I had a chance to talk to him about the movie. When I asked him about why the decision was made to make his movie a musical, unlike its predecessors, Gad said that ultimately, it was necessary because much of the music is better known, and fans would want to hear it.

"Cinderella is an exceptional animated movie, but the songs, other than like ‘Bippity Boppity Boo,’ and the song that Cinderella herself sings, because it came out so long ago, people don’t have the same familiarity with that. Jungle Book, a little bit closer to resonance, and so I think that they layered some of those songs in there. Beauty and the Beast, you’d better damn well believe that people know those songs. They expect to hear those songs, and they have dreamed of seeing those songs come to life. I know I have for 20+ years. So, I think it’s the burden of expectation is there, that the music will be a part of it".

While it was nice hearing some of the music that was included in The Jungle Book, some of it felt a bit forced. That won’t be the case for Beauty and the Beast as it was planned from the ground up as a musical. Josh Gad also told me that he believes the musical numbers will be something special when audiences finally see them.

"I think that [what] the creative team has so brilliantly done is they’ve embraced it so fully that the scale and scope of those numbers is unlike anything modern Hollywood really gets a chance to do anymore. You’re going to see songs come to life in Technicolor magic, in a way that I think like big studio films, once upon a time, used to do, but have sort of not done for a long period of time and I think it’s going to be really amazing thing for audiences to see again".

Expect Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast movie to embrace its music roots, even if it's not pulling songs from the Broadway musical. "What Disney has slowly been building towards and giving people little tastes of -- even in Jungle Book, which I hear is brilliant, but I've yet to see it; I cannot wait to see it, but I hear you have little tidbits of music -- you finally have a movie that embraces the incredible music that Howard Ashman and Alan Menken wrote and gives it the kind of scope and scale that Hollywood don't do anymore in live-action musicals," Josh Gad told IGN while promoting his role in The Angry Birds Movie. "The scale of these numbers is going to floor people."

Gad spoke broadly about how music will play a role in the movie, though he wouldn't get specific about what ways this Bill Condon-directed version of the story will deviate and elevate its inspiration, the 1991 animated Beauty and the Beast. "It is one of those movies that is so iconic," he said. "What I think the creative team has brilliantly done under the guidance of Bill Condon is it's taken all of these moments that we recollect from our childhoods over the year of watching the film, etcetera, and it's given it new life, new wrinkles, new dimensions that are going to blow people away." He added, "If you loved the original movie, you are going to love this film. If you've never seen the original movie, you are going to love this film. It has something old for everyone, something new for everyone, and it is very much its own beast, if you will."

Gad is playing La Fou, the sidekick of Gaston in the movie. When asked about his co-star Luke Evans, he had some high praise for his on-screen partner. "That was my favorite part of the experience," Gad said. "That kid is unreal. He's such an unbelievable singer, and bringing a song like 'Gaston' to life, having sung it as a kid over and over again, it was a dream come true, opposite Luke."

Starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, Beauty and the Beast is slated to hit theaters on March 17, 2017. While fans need to wait close to a year to see the movie, Gad already got a sneak peek. "I saw a rough cut of it months ago, and I wanted to get up on my feet and applaud during sequences," he said. "It's just stunning, and I'm so excited and proud to be a part of it."

Josh Gad wrote:The movie's incredible. Anybody who ever loved Beauty and the Beast as a child is going to love it. This movie builds on the legacy of the original and takes it to the next level. I'm super excited.

Q: You have "Beauty and the Beast" coming out next year. Was it overwhelming taking over a character that's a big piece of everyone's childhood?

Josh Gad: It's funny because, before I signed on, I sat down with the director, Bill Condon, and was like: "I want to pay homage to the character that came before, but I want him to be distinct in some way." And I feel like we found some interesting wrinkles that are hopefully going to be a little surprising. You're playing a three-dimensional version of a two-dimensional character, so you've gotta bring something more to it. And, having seen a cut of it, I think it works incredibly well and the film is just exceptional.

Q: Did you complete the Beauty and the Beast movie or are you doing it now?

Josh Gad: I did. We completed it. It's coming out next year. It's a live-action retelling of the Disney classic and it's unbelievable. I got to sing and do all the dancing but the hard part was that I had to horseback ride.

Josh Gad wrote:It's so much fun. That was one of my favorite movies growing up. Being able to do those songs and recreate that world...I'm just so excited. I think it's going to be pretty amazing.

“I play LeFou in the movie. Which - given that I grew up loving all of those hand-drawn Disney films from the early 1990s, Beauty and the Beast & Aladdin & The Lion King - this role was kind of a dream come true for me. But the best part is — having seen an early cut of the live-action version - it is, you know, knock on wood, everything that everyone could possibly hope for and more,” Gad enthused. “Bill Condon is such an exceptional director. He’s someone who — over the course of his career - has masterfully blended music & dance & visuals on so many of his movies. So Beauty and the Beast really plays to a lot of his strengths. And I think that people are just going to be floored when they finally get to see Disney’s new live-action version.”

Q: How do you think people are going to react when they see that CGI Beast in the movie?

Josh Gad: Having seen it, I can tell you that they're are going to react appropriately awestruck and amazed. Dan's performance is just incredible and gives it a gravitas that I think just grounds the entire movie. What Bill Condon has cooked up is nothing short of magical.

Q: How do you feel it is different from the animated classic?

Josh Gad: I think it builds on the animated classic. It evolves like Jungle Book evolved from the source material, like Cinderella evolved from the source material. But it goes further into the trenches in terms of the mythology, in terms of the characters. There's a scope to it and a pathos to it that, having seen it, I can tell you was unexpectedly very emotional. I think that the new music as well as the old music is just going to blow everybody away.

Sotiris wrote:Look, I've worn out the Frozen welcome in my house, so I needed something to win back their affection.