Guillermo del Toro is attached to direct Beauty, a new take on the Beauty and the Beast tale set up at Warner Bros. and to which Harry Potter actress Emma Watson is attached to star.  At the same time, the studio has hired Andrew Davies to write the script.

The deal has been going on since last spring, when del Toro first began working with producers Denise De Novi and Alison Greenspan on a take. The project was initially an adaptation of Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of the Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley but has evolved since. Watson came on board last summer but it was always a question whether del Toro would act as a producer or join the project as a director as well.