When Kevin Kline was announced as part of the cast of Bill Condon’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, my immediate assumption was that he’d been cast as Lumiere, the butler-turned-candelabra who helps the cursed prince clean up his act for his newfound lady love. It was a slight bummer to learn that Kline had been cast as Maurice, Belle’s father, but I liked the casting choice posed on Twitter and the TBs: Jean Dujardin. Alas, Disney and Condon have gone another way to replace late actor Jerry Orbach, and have cast everybody’s favorite bearded Jedi/toilet-diving junkie, Ewan McGregor.
The film has already started production (as evidenced by a cast picture on Josh Gad’s Instagram), but McGregor’s role is obviously one of the biggest in the film. We know he can sing because of MOULIN ROUGE, so he should have no problem belting out Lumiere’s major number, “Be Our Guest.” His French accent and lothario charm have gotten less exposure throughout his career, and it’ll be interesting to see him a little outside of his comfort zone. He always seemed a little sexless to me, unlike Lumiere, who, in the animated version, we meet trying to get into another anthropomorphic character’s panties.
THE JUNGLE BOOK and BEAUTY ON THE BEAST are currently facing off for the best cast for a Disney live-action remake currently in production. And with McGregor’s casting, the latter is closer than ever to besting the former.
Ewan McGregor - Your Song with Lyrics from Moulin Rouge - HD/HQ from Storage Space on Vimeo.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will put Ewan’s pipes to the test on March 17th, 2017.
