With the recent resurgence of fairy tale themed shows such as NBC’s Grimm and ABC’s own Once Upon a Time, the Disney-owned company is now prepared to launch their second fabled show in the form of a live-action retelling of the children’s classic Beauty and the Beast, originally written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

The pilot will be written by Jonathan E. Steinberg (Human Target, Jericho with Steinberg acting as executive producer with Gary Fleder and Mary Beth Basile. It is also speculated that the series, if picked up, will air after the networks already highly successful Once Upon A Time. This version of the tale is intended as a period piece and will feature a hardboiled princess who develops a connection with a wild beast. No word yet on casting.

As if one Beauty and the Beast show wasn’t enough, the CW has also ordered a reboot of the CBS-produced version which ran on the network from 1987-1989. It starred Ron Pearlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy) as Vincent, a lion-faced creature who wanders the New York sewers and occasionally quotes Shakespeare.

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The first holiday weekend of the year has come and the big winner was the tender stare of an underwear model. The new Mark Wahlberg actioner, Contraband, came in at number one this weekend with an estimated Twenty-Four million. The impressive total marks one of the highest openings ever for a Mark Wahlberg starring film, and ranks comparably with other January films of this genre.

Coming in at number two was the 3D re-release of the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast. The 3D version raked in eighteen and a half million, which is less than the recent re-release of The Lion King in 3D. Even though the dollars weren’t as good, the sum is still nice considering how long this has been sitting on the shelf. Disney is staying in the 3D reissue business with releases scheduled twice a year for the next few years.

In a number three is the recent box office champ Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which continues to hold remarkably well. It brought in just over eleven million dollars and became the second highest grossing film in the Impossible franchise. This is a big win all around and looks to be a strong start Jeremy Renner’s assault on big budget franchise films.

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If there is one company out there that knows how to capitalize on a good thing, it’s definitely Disney. Now that Lion King 3D has made just under $80 million, and the film itself has made nearly $500 million combining it with the original release from 1994, the studio is ready for lightning to strike twice.

It looks like the films Disney is now looking to bring back range from both their 2D cell animated days to the days of Pixar. The plan is to release one older film and one more recent film a year, bringing us to the end of 2013.

Next to hit theaters is a 3D release of Beauty and the Beast on January 31 of next year, to be followed by Finding Nemo on September 14th, 2012. Then for 2013, you’re looking at Monsters, Inc. on January 18th, and The Little Mermaid on September 13th.

This is surely going to be a cash cow for both Disney and Pixar, and may just be enough to keep them from making big releases like Up or sequels like Toy Story 3 for years, which has been pretty costly in the past.

All we know is that this will give us another chance to enjoy these films with a fresh audience and may even introduce a new generation to these classic films.

If one could call Chuck Norris a “Man’s Man,” then you should very easily be able to call Ron Perlman a “Geek’s Man.” His work on countless comic and fantasy projects like Hellboy, Alien: Resurrection, Blade, Conan and more has endeared him to fans everywhere, making him our go-to tough guy in the world of geek.

Now, Perlman has found a home on Kurt Sutter’s FX series Sons of Anarchy as, yes, a badass biker. All week long, we’ve brought you new interviews with other notables from the show, and now it’s time for the “Geek’s Man” to take center stage as we have a chat with Ron Perlman himself.

In the interview, Perlman discussed Sons of Anarchy, some of the new projects he has coming up, how much of a relief it is to work on a show that doesn’t require hours of makeup, and how quickly he’d return to the Hellboy franchise.

Check out the full interview after the break. Be sure to catch the season 3 premiere of Sons of Anarchy next Tuesday, September 7th, at 10/9C on FX.

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