'Beauty and the Beast' star Luke Evans calls co-star Emma Watson "wonderful" and says she is the epitome of Belle. He also admired her great singing voice. First glimpse of Dan Stevens' Beast shows he is redesigned to be more human-like.

Luke Evans, who plays the hunky yet self-centered Gaston, couldn't help but express his admiration for co-star Emma Watson, who plays Belle in Disney's upcoming live-action adaptation of the animated musical from 1991. According to The Leaky Cauldron, Evans spoke up about the filming process during the promotion of his film 'High Rise' at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. He talked about Watson's portrayal as the adventurous bibliophile who ends up falling in love with a cursed prince.

He said, "She epitomizes what Belle should be in the 21st century to young girls; she's a strong woman. We all know Emma as Emma, a strong woman, she has a voice, she uses it very effectively and I admire her for that. She's brought some of that to Belle. She's not just a Disney princess, she's more than a Disney princess, and she has a beautiful sensitive side to her."

Evans added that although there is a daintiness and delicacy about Watson, she is actually a very strong, "feisty woman" who delivers fantastic scenes.

Original iconic songs such as "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and the Beast" are reportedly included in the adaptation. Evans revealed that although the songs were prerecorded, he did his fair share of singing live on-set, according to Australian Network News. He jokingly admitted that Watson was also a triple-threat since she had a great singing voice besides being a superb actress.

Although there hasn't been much news regarding Dan Stevens' Beast yet, an image of the cursed prince made it online in the form of a crew t-shirt. It was reported by Den of Geek that director Bill Condon is currently in post-production and may be finalizing the whole redesign of Beast. The image showed similarities with the animated creature and yet also revealed a more human-like face.

In the 1991 animated film, Beast was portrayed as a massive discombobulated monster. He had the head structure and horns of a wild bison, the mane of a lion, and the legs of a wolf although he stood on two legs instead of four. The rest of his body was a combination of other animals including a bear, gorilla and deer.

'Beauty and the Beast' is scheduled to be released on March 17, 2017. It is directed by Bill Condon and written for the big-screen by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos. It stars Watson, Evans, Stevens, Evan McGregor, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen and Stanley Tucci.