The CW has released a preview of its upcoming Beauty and the Beast adaptation.
Originally, the show was pitched as a remake of the classic 80’s series which starred Linda Hamilton & Ron Perlman, but it seems that quite a few changes have been made to the basic premise.
In this preview, we see the inciting event of the entire show with some voice over from the lovely Kristin Kreuk in-character as the show’s ‘beauty’, Catherine.
Catherine, a hard-nosed NYPD detective, finds a deformed man, Vincent, a victim of military experimentation who is responsible for murdering her mother’s killers nine years earlier, an event which led the character into law-enforcement in the first place. Catherine then becomes his connection on the inside of the police department, as he fights crime on the streets (Note: There is no official synopsis for the series yet).
This seems like it’s going to be a detective show, with Catherine getting help on her cases from the mysterious deformed man, not a surprise I suppose, considering how popular detective shows are right now. It is surprising to see it on The CW, however, which is known mostly for its teen drama. Maybe they realize that the audience they built with Smallville ten years ago are all grown up now.
This is part of an apparent Beauty and the Beast outbreak in the zeitgeist, as ABC is also working on a Beauty and the Beast serial, in which a betrothed princess falls in love with her hideous bodyguard in a medieval kingdom, and a film is in the works called Beauty, which adapts the novel of the same name and stars Emma Watson. We have no further news of those two projects, though I expect we’ll see a trailer or preview of the ABC show in the next week or so.
Beauty and the Beast will air on The CW this fall.
