A Beastly Vanessa Hudgens set visit

Getting Beastly

Hudgens' latest film is based upon the young adult novel by Alex Flinn. Beastly takes the classic Beauty and the Beast tale, tweaks it and transfers it to a modern Manhattan-area high school. When we arrived at the massive Beastly sound stage complex outside Montreal, the crew was preparing to shoot a scene on the roof of the beast's lair and we found the set to be amazing.

Hot "beast" Alex Pettyfer brought us a bottle of water while in his freaky and unexpected make-up with a cheery 'Here you go, from your own personal beast/slave!"

We were a bit startled but if Alex's make-up is any indication, the film will be a visual knock-out. The film's producer Susan Cartsonis told us that cute Mr. Pettyfer does have "a bad boy edge to him."

We can't wait to see more evidence of this!

While outside the huge Beastly sound stages, we were able to find Vanessa Hudgens near her trailer and sit down for a chat. We're saving most of what she told us about her experience on the film until closer to release date next year. But, we can say that Hudgens finds Alex, as the beast, quite "sexy and magical" and that there is one particular dress she wears in the film that she just loves.

We also questioned her about the time she has spent in Montreal.

Vanessa Hudgens Beastly chat

SheKnows: You've been working in Montreal for three months now. Did you and any of the cast get a chance to look around the city at all?

Vanessa Hudgens: A little bit. Me and Mary-Kate (Olsen) and Dakota (Johnson) would hang out and go window shopping which was a of fun. And, I got to see Stevie Wonder. I walked out on my balcony and I saw someone on the monitors swaying back and forth singing (she sings) 'I just called...to say...I love you'. I'm like 'oh my Gosh! That's Stevie Wonder. There were fireworks every Saturday at the jazz festival. But Montreal is incredible. I love it. It's a great place to work.

More Beastly to come...

We will tip you that one of the scenes we saw shot during our visit involves a little travel for Vanessa and Alex. Another involved a lighthearted moment between Alex's beast and his tutor, played wonderfully by Neil Patrick Harris.

Director Daniel Barnz also told us he was happy to see the story told through the beast's perspective rather than "beauty's" and his focus is more on the romance rather than the supernatural.

Keep checking back in for our other updates on Beastly, starring Vanessa Hudgens, Alex Pettyfer, Mary-Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris and Dakota Johnson in theaters in July 2010.

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