His Dark Media › News › Beastly: Will it Roar or Wimper?

Item published by HanameHime on 24th January. 1 Comment.

Riding on the success of the Twilight films, new teen-lit adaption Beastly is set to hit theaters in summer 2010. Beastly is a modernized version of the Beauty and the Beast story, set in contemporary New York City, and told from the “beast's” point-of-view. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Alex Flinn, author of many more young-adult book and several other fairy-tale modernizations, and whose work is compared to the likes of Stephenie Meyer and Gail Carson Levine.

The story: Kyle Kingsbury is an ego-maniac high schooler, convinced that his good looks grant him innate superiority over his peers. Prone to acts of light sadism, he asks a gothic girl to a dance with the intention of humiliating her, only to learn that she is the modern equivalent of the story's enchantress. She transforms him into a beast, and his father, shamed by his son's hideousness, forces him inside and out of sight. The “beauty” of the story – called Linda in the book, but Lindy in the film – is forced to live with Kyle when he witnesses her drug-addict father commit a murder. The rest is easy to imagine – the two grow closer, Kyle learns his lesson, and finds true love.

Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame is set to play Lindy, while relative newcomer and ex-model Alex Pettyfer has been cast as Kyle. Mary-Kate Olsen will play Kendra, the goth-girl/witch-in-disguise; so far a cast that seems to firmly target the pre-teen and teenage girl market. Notably, geek-favorite Neil Patrick Harris has a role as Kyle's blind live-in tutor, a choice which may draw a more diverse audience.

A (very short) teaser trailer has been released by CBS films. It provides little insight about the film, aside from revealing that Kyle's “beastly” incarnation is in fact not very beast-like at all – rather he looks much like a bald and slightly moodier Alex Pettyfer with vines covering his skin. One wonders if this is a bit too much of a departure from the source material and original fairy tale to appease fantasy-hungry fans. Nevertheless, the promise of a dark brooding figure being taught to love will likely appeal to the Twi-hards looking for a little something extra after the Eclipse release.

Beastly will hit theaters in July 2010.

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