Yesterday, we showed you the new Entertainment Weekly cover that featured Emma Watson's Belle and Dan Stevens' Beast in Disney's highly-anticipated Beauty and the Beast. Today we have our first look at nine official photos from this live action adaptation, as we continue the countdown towards the March 17, 2017 release. If the numbers from the first trailer are any indication, this may be one of the biggest movies of 2017.

Walt Disney Pictures unveiled the first trailer back in May, which broke the trailer views record set by the studio's blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The Beauty and the Beast trailer was watched a whopping 91.8 million times in the first 24 hours, besting the record for most-watched teaser of 88 million views set by the first teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We'll have to wait and see if subsequent trailers can break Star Wars: The Force Awakens' record for most views of a full trailer, with 112 million views for the final trailer.

These new images feature Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast from Disney's upcoming live-action adaptation of the studio's animated classic and one of the most beloved tales ever told, Beauty and the Beast. The film, which brings the story and characters audiences know and love to life in a stunning, cinematic event, is directed by Bill Condon and features an extraordinary ensemble cast which also includes Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Audra McDonald, Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson. Beauty and the Beast will be released in U.S. theaters nationwide on March 17, 2017, going up against The Belko Experiment.

We also reported yesterday that this new incarnation of Beauty and the Beast will give Belle a new backstory. In the original animated classic, her father Maurice was an inventor who was trying to sell his wood-chopping machine when he became imprisoned in the Beast's castle. This project flips the script, with Belle as the inventor of music boxes, which her father builds for her. She also invented a washing machine, so she could spend her time reading instead of doing laundry.

Bill Condon directs Beauty and the Beast from a script written by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Stephen Chbosky. The director stepped in to replace the original filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who left the project back in the summer of 2014. Take a look at these new official photos from Beauty and the Beast, as we wait for a new trailer to arrive.

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