The CW has released a new extended 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 actually get to see the ‘Beast’ of the show, along with a rather detailed account of how he ended up the way he is. Once again, we’ve got some voice-over from the lovely Kristin Kreuk in-character as the show’s ‘beauty’, Catherine as she writes in her journal, which seems like it will be a regular device.
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).
It’s interesting to hear Kruek even point out that the ‘Beast’ is “like a super hero,” especially considering the role she’s known best for is as the romantic interest of another super hero. More interesting, though somewhat disappointing, is the nature of the beast. It is ironic that, unlike Ron Pearlman’s beast, this one seems to spend most of his time as a rather handsome guy, who simply has a non-deforming scar across one cheek – hardly beastly – though it seems he gets uglier when he uses his government-experiment-induced powers.
The show 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 soon.
Beauty and the Beast will air Thursdays at 9pm on The CW this fall.
