It has just been announced that Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast will be released on March 17th 2017, two years from tomorrow. Seems a long time to wait, but filming won’t begin on the project until this Summer. It has also been revealed that Emma Thompson will be playing Mrs. Potts, as was rumored a couple weeks ago.

In other exciting news Alan Menken, the original composer for Disney’s 1991 animated version, will be writing the score for this version. Menken has won 8 Oscars for his work, including 2 for Beauty and the Beast. The film will feature new recordings of the original songs in addition to several new songs written by Menken and Sir Tim Rice.

After a successful showing at this years SXSW it has been announced that Rupert Grint’s Moonwalkers has been picked up for release in the United States. Alchemy has bought the rights to the film, written by Dean Craig. A description of the film may be read below:

What if Apollo 11 never actually made it? What if, in reality, Stanley Kubrick secretly shot the famous images of the moon landing in a studio, working for the US administration? This is the premise of a totally plausible conspiracy theory that takes us to swinging sixties London, where a stubborn CIA agent (Ron Perlman a.k.a. Hellboy) will never find Kubrick but instead is forced to team up with Rupert Grint’s lousy manager of a seedy rock band to develop the biggest con of all time, in this riotous, high-tempo action-comedy.

The film will be showing again at SXSW on Tuesday and Thursday.

In a new interview with Total Film, Emma Watson discusses her latest roles. First, she talked about Colonia, which will be released later this year. The full interview can be found in the May issue of Total Film, available March 13th. Below are some snippets via The Irish Examiner.

‘It really challenged me. It really pushed me to the brink, this role. I got sent the script and my agent sent me the Wikipedia page on Colonia Dignidad. I immediately went, ‘Oh my God, I’m not sure!’ it was really, really, really heavy and really awful subject matter, but the script was such a page-turner and so well written and I’m really a big fan of Daniel Bruhl. I really liked the director [Florian Gallenberger]. It all just kind of felt right: a really intelligent female leading role character. It felt like the right thing to do.”

“I’ve just always been aware that it was a bit of a double-edged sword. I think I never really thought necessarily I’d become an actress or become famous. It’s something I felt very passive in. It was something that happened to me. They came to my school. They saw me and they took photographs of me. I was taken up to London to audition. I just happened to be picked up and put in one of the biggest film franchises of all time. I wanted to feel active in what happened to me in my life. I wanted to be able to move myself into a place where I felt like I was driving my career and my life, rather than just responding to things that happened to me. I wanted to try to make it my own.”

She added: “It feels like I was building a portfolio over the last five, six years. Now I feel like I’m ready to really be carrying films. I’m really just ready now to focus on my career full time and go full steam ahead. It’s exciting at the moment.”

Second, she was asked about the upcoming live-action version of Beauty and the Beast film which also stars Luke Evans as Gaston and Dan Stevens as Beast.

“I sing, so that’s really unexpected,” she said. “I’ve never had to do that for a film role before, and I think people will be interested to see me do something very different like that. It gives me a different challenge, really. That’s terrifying in and of itself!”

Finally she mentions The Queen of Tearling, which we reported about some time ago:

When asked about her future career plans, she hinted a job behind the lens could soon beckon.

She is working with Harry Potter producer David Heyman, in an executive producer role on a multi­part adaptation of fantasy series Queen Of The Tearling in which she will also star.

“I really like it,” she told the magazine. “For me, to want to sign up to a series again, I wanted to have a certain amount of autonomy and control within that. Working with David’s been great. I’d love to direct something one day. I’d love to produce as well, so it’s quite a nice way to start learning about that. Yeah, just dipping my toes into that world.”

Over the past few months Tom Felton has been visiting various fans and attending conferences to find super fans for all sorts of fandoms.  The fruits of his labor, Tom Felton Meets The Superfans, will be airing on BBC Three on March 23rd at 9pm!

From an earlier press release:

In November 2014 Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter) will be in the midst of Convention season heading to Tulsa to attend one of the world’s largest film and TV cult festivals Wizard World and on this side of the Atlantic attending Comic Con at Birmingham’s NEC. Every year thousands of super fans come together at these locations – wearing elaborate and intricate costumes – to meet the ‘real’ people behind their favourite shows. For the young men and women who attend it can be a life changing and often overwhelming experience as they meet the stars they’ve idolised for years.

For Tom the convention tour has been part of his life for over a decade, but now as an adult and with some distance from the franchise that made him world famous, Tom wants to take a step back and look at the conventions from the side of the super fan – attempting to understand for the first time why these young people become so attached to these fantastical books, movies and TV series and more importantly by spending time with fans and hearing from his celebrity friends and co-stars ask: when does a fan become a fanatic?

1×60′, director and presenter is Tom Felton. Executive producer: Colleen Flynn and Andrew Palmer from KEO Films. Commissioning editor for the BBC is Elliot Reed.

In honor of International Women’s Day and in her role as UN Women’s ambassador, Emma Watson participated in a live discussion on Facebook earlier today to discuss the HeForShe gender equality movement. A full video of the event may be watched below:

This morning Bloomsbury sent over brand new artwork from the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Illustrated Edition. Illustrated by Jim Kay, the image shows the front of Flourish & Blotts the bookshop on Diagon Alley where Harry buys his first set of school books. The image appears on the front of Bloomsbury Children’s Books New Titles catalogue (Jul-Dec 2015) and is part of a larger illustration of Diagon Alley that will appear in the finished book. You can pre-order the book at Waterstones.

Published globally on 6th October 2015 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Illustrated Edition will be the first fully illustrated edition of J.K. Rowling’s original Harry Potter novel. The hardback edition will include ribbon marker, head and tail bands, illustrated endpapers and  artwork on every spread. Many of the original Harry Potter publishers around the globe will be joining the UK and the US in bringing this illustrated edition to life – and it is set to be the landmark publishing event of 2015.

The illustration may be seen in the gallery with a preview above.  The description from the book that inspired the artwork is as follows:

“They bought Harry’s school books in a shop called Flourish & Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these.” Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Bloomsbury also sent over a Q&A with the illustrator:

How did you feel when you found out you would be illustrating the Harry Potter novels?
Scientists say the Big Bang is to be followed by the Big Crunch, I feel I have firsthand experience of this theory, for hearing the news that I’d got the commission was an explosion of delight, followed instantly by an implosion of brain-freezing terror. From my point of view it is, without doubt, the best commission you can be given – I’m a bit of a control freak, so to be given the opportunity to design the characters, the costume, the architecture and landscapes to possibly the most expansive fantasy world in children’s literature, well lets just say I’m extremely excited about it. However, I am also mindful of the huge responsibility this represents, I just want to make sure I do the best job I possibly can.

Is there a particular character or scene that you are looking forward to illustrating?
It’s like trying to choose the shiniest object in Aladdin’s Cave; you pick up one treasure, and another gem catches your eye. I couldn’t even pick a favourite creature at the moment (maybe a Thestral, or a Bowtruckle, but then the Goblins are wonderful characters, mind you there are Trolls too – you see my problem!). It’s been lovely thinking about casting the characters, but at the moment my favourite task is creating Hogwarts – it’s the first time I’ve thought about building something supported by magic – it’s harder than you’d think.

How do you as an artist approach such a large job? Where do you begin with such a wide range of possibilities?
It sounds obvious but you start with the text. The story is everything, and so I want to bring what I can to really show the depth of Rowling’s stories, to their best. Then it’s a case of research, and lots of it. The books have made me look at people differently, I’m always scanning crowds for interesting faces. For an illustrator there’s no such thing as an ugly or odd looking person – they are all interesting. Luckily for me, Kettering is home to some very interesting people indeed. Museums and Libraries are my favourite places for inspiration. You might see something, it could be a medieval shoe, an old clock, or a stuffed monkey, and immediately it gives you ideas about the characters in the story, the things they would do, the way they walk. The tricky thing I’ve found is my annoying habit of reigning in the more fantastical elements of my sketches when working them up, it’s taken a while for it to sink in that for this commission I can go a little bit crazy. Above my desk, the words ‘It’s Fantasy, Stupid” are now a daily reminder to have a bit of fun.

Are you a Harry Potter fan? If so, what are your first memories of reading the books?
I AM a Harry Potter fan, although true to form, I arrived a little late to the party. I actually heard Steven Fry’s wonderful audio book of Philosopher’s Stone before reading it, initially because I’d sat on a tube train full of school children who were chatting about Potter with great excitement. It was actually the recollections of starting a new school that really connected with me (we moved house when I was young, and I had to start at a big school where I didn’t know anybody). As an adult I’d forgotten how hard school actually was, and it all came flooding back – particularly when reading The Order of the Phoenix – the dread of exams! It’s amazing to think, all of Potter’s world, the streets, the shops, the creatures, the characters, all of these wonderful things come from the brain of one person. To me, that’s magic, some grey matter in someones head inspires others to read, play, and create ideas of their own. It’s like a spell that jumps from person to person, recasting itself as it goes. I want to keep that spell going, perhaps adding my own little twist, if possible. I hope over the years we will see lots of different illustrators having a go, in the way that Alice in Wonderland has inspired artists for over a century.

Who is your favourite character from the Harry Potter universe?
This is like trying to choose your favourite record, it changes all the time. I have a soft spot for Neville, particularly because of his awkwardness, but you have to admire Hermione, because she puts the hours in at the Library, she’s the cement really that holds it all together, well it would be a different story. I want to know more about Severus, there’s so much depth there. Visually, though, it has to be Hagrid; he’s got a wonderful heart, clothed in an enormous, shabby body. Hagrid’s Hut is, for me, like an extension of his physique: it makes him a part of Hogwarts, but keeps him at a distance too.

What were your favourite books as a child?
I remember sitting up in bed, with a copy of one of Willard Price’s “Adventure” series in my hands, and on my lap a colossal book of facts such as ‘The Encyclopaedia of Natural History’. You see, Willard’s books were ripping yarns about two brothers who got into all sorts of scrapes searching for rare and exotic animals in far-flung places. So I’d read about their adventures, then swot up on the animals they found. Those fact books were so heavy, I couldn’t feel my feet after a few chapters, but I was in nerd-heaven, nonetheless.

Who are your favourite illustrators (either classic or modern)?
Crumbs, so many, Eric Ravilious for his paintings, Edmund Dulac for his exquisite colour, I think Alexis Deacon is an astonishing draughtsman, possibly the most gifted illustrator around, and I love the work of Ian Miller too, who produces wonderful illustrations of castles, knights, goblins and orcs. I’d love to see his version of Harry Potter; it would take a brave child to enter Miller’s Hogwarts I reckon.

How would you describe your own art style?
I tend to change my style to fit the story, which makes life very difficult, but it’s good to keep pushing yourself. If something’s not a little bit frightening, then it’s probably not worth doing. I’m still learning about illustration, and I still feel pretty new to this (this will be my third book), and I hope I never stop learning, because there are so many things I want to try – I feel I haven’t scratched the surface yet.

What tips would you offer to young people who are keen to become artists/illustrators?
I’ve met a lot of children who say they can’t draw or paint very well, and believe that a life as an artist or a designer is therefore closed to them. It’s tragic because the ideas they have are often incredible, and I think ideas are the most valuable possession of anyone in a creative industry. Drawing and painting is a bit like playing the guitar; if you practise enough you will get better with time, so don’t worry about that side of it, just concentrate on getting your ideas down, because that’s what makes you different from everybody else. And don’t forget, if you have a great idea, it will shine through the crudest of drawings, in the same way a great song might only need three chords on a guitar to bring it to life.

Do you have a daily routine when it comes to illustrating?
Well, it’s remarkably unremarkable: Get up, walk the dog, draw all day and all night, throw all of the days work in the bin, and go to bed hoping tomorrow is one of those days where something stays out of the bin. At the moment the bin is winning 3-0, I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll score a couple of away goals.