President and CEO of Marvel Studios Avi Arad spoke about the casting of Kelsey Grammar as "Beast" in "X3" today with IGN Filmforce and he discusses a little bit about the character's design:
Question: So, I hear you've got some news...
Answer: I've got some news... Basically, it's casting news. Kitty Pryde is in this movie, but we didn't pick the actress yet, so that will be a couple of days. The same with Angel. You already know we're looking for Angel. After the weekend, I think Angel will be done. Juggernaut is Vince Jones, which, I think, there's some prior knowledge, but that's now done.
Question: Am I to assume this [Beast] is a voiceover role with a CG character, or is there talk of make-up?
Answer: No, there will be make-up and prostheses. It will be a combination of artforms to bring it to life, but a lot of it will maintain around his face - his eyes, his mouth, and so on. It will be very much like the kind of stuff we did with The Thing...
Question: As a character, the Beast underwent a redesign a few years back to look more like the Ron Perlman Beast character from the Beauty and the Beast TV show from the late 80's...
Answer: Right. What you'll see in the movie, it will be a combination of - we'll call it the "90's Beast" - more like, if you remember, from our animated show.
Question: The classic more canine look...
Answer: But even more important, it has the supreme intelligence look. You're going to get really close to his eyes, to his face, and so on. And obviously Kelsey has this delivery of a college professor. You expect his intelligence and warmth and calming ways, and as important with Beast is the way Beast reacts to adversity and violence, and so on. Knowing how powerful he is, he can almost be forgiving of it, and in some ways make fun of it in a gentle way without trying to hurt anybody.
For the full interview, which talks about a host of other titles, click here.
Thanks to 'Stax'.
