After casting for the upcoming ‘Beauty and the Beast’ live-action adaptation has been announced for the past months, animated musical composer Alan Menken recently confirmed that the soundtrack will include three new songs.
Tracks from the original animated film will also be heard, although there will not be any songs from the Broadway production.
“The song I would have fit in from the Broadway show is ‘If I Can’t Love Her’ but the Beast’s moment in the film is a much later moment… So we wrote another song called ‘Forever More,’ like ‘I now know what love is,’” the award-winning composer said.
In addition, he mentioned that there will also be a track titled ‘Days in the Sun’, a lullaby deemed ideal as the characters and objects in the castle go into a deep slumber while singing before the spell.
There were no details provided about the final song; nonetheless, Menken confirmed that these three new songs had been composed alongside his writing partner Tim Rice. The duo previously worked on composing the popular soundtrack for ‘Aladdin.’
Menken’s work with Disney has evidently been his most notable, particularly with his attainment of eight Academy Awards that were given to him for his various soundtracks for the studio's animated films.
With the release of the animated musical ‘The Little Mermaid’ in 1989, Menken went on to bag awards for his work along with the late Howard Ashman. The duo reunited to compose the soundtrack for 1991’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’, which became the third highest-grossing movie within the year.
Recently, the iconic composer worked on a new series, ‘Artist to Artist’, which is a new series in New York’s Lincoln Center where new artists are offered the opportunity to conduct an interview with seasoned experts.
Meanwhile, live-action remakes of popular classics have become clearly beneficial for Disney. With ‘Alice in Wonderland’ raking in more than $1 billion in the global box office, ‘Maleficent’ also pulled in $750 million worldwide.
Filming of the ‘Beauty and Beast’ live-action musical adaptation already started last May 18 at the Shepperton Studios in London.
‘Harry Potter’ star Emma Watson has been set to portray Belle the ‘Beauty’ while former ‘Downton Abbey’ actor Dan Stevens will portray the cursed prince, or the ‘Beast.’
They have been joined by Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as LeFou, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Kevin Kline as Maurice and Audra McDonald as Garderobe.
Ewan McGregor also joins the cast as Lumiere while Sir Ian McKellen is on board as Cogsworth.
‘Beauty and the Beast’ has been set to hit cinemas on Mar. 17, 2017.
