BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Writer Reveals Origins Of Disney+ Prequel And Whether He's Involved (Exclusive)

The Unholy follows Alice, a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Supernatural) hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate.

However, when terrifying events begin to happen all around, he starts to question if these phenomena are the works of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister. Produced by Sam Raimi, it was written for the screen and directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos. 

We recently caught up with the filmmaker to discuss bringing James Herbert’s best-selling book Shrine to the big screen (it's now playing in cinemas and tickets can be purchased by clicking here), but had to ask the Beauty and the Beast scribe about Disney+'s upcoming prequel series starring Luke Evans and Josh Gad as the weirdly loveable team of Gaston and LeFou. 

"I would have certainly liked to be," Spiliotopoulos responded when we asked if he's been consulted on the project at all. "This is actually very much a brainchild of Luke Evans and Josh Gad who got along famously and fantastically on set. They're best buddies now. They had a twisted idea what the prequel adventures of Gaston and LeFou might have been. It generated from them. They're the showrunners of the thing. I'm looking forward to watching it [and] I've got my Disney+ ready!"

It is a shame that the writer and director hasn't been asked to take an active role in the development of the untitled series, but it sounds like it's in safe hands, and we'll hopefully learn more soon.

In the meantime, you can watch our full interview about The Unholy below, and keep checking back here throughout the week for more from Spiliotopoulos about helming his first horror movie.