Parallel Encounters

The Beast is an upcoming adult animated romantic psychological drama film directed by RaymanLover, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Zander. The film stars Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning, alongside an ensemble supporting cast featuring Joaquin Phoenix, Evan Peters, Ben Affleck, Sandra Bullock and Jessica Biel.

Chalamet plays Elijah Zane, a teenage werewolf with bipolar disorder who recently escaped from a mental hospital after suffering an attempted murder. He then meets a young pop star, Penny Fitzgerald (Fanning), who develops feelings for Elijah after offering to help him with his uncontrollable rage.

Distributed by Touchstone Pictures, The Beast is produced by A24 and Touchstone Pictures in association with Miramax, RaymanLover Studios and EZstudios. The film plays with shifting aspect ratios and alternates between color and black and white.

The Beast was released worldwide on May 31, 2024, receiving polarizing reviews from critics, with praise directed at the perfomances of Chalamet and Fanning, RaymanLover's direction, visual style, editing, score, and cinematography, while critism was largely aimed towards the melodramatic tone, portrayal of mental illness and use of graphic violence and sexual content.

It is expected to the second film in the RaymanLover Cinematic Multiverse.

Synopsis
Set in the early 2000s, after suffering an assassination attempt, Elijah Zane escapes from a mental asylum and is now willing to move on. Through his new friends, he meets Penny Fitzgerald, who promises him help with mental health.

Voice cast

 * Timothée Chalamet as Elijah Zane
 * Elle Fanning as Penny Fitzgerald
 * Joaquin Phoenix as Josh Alvine
 * Evan Peters as Bonzo Randall
 * Ben Affleck as Patrick Fitzgerald
 * Sandra Bullock as Judith Fitzgerald
 * Jessica Biel as Trisha Zane

Reddit users vs. Eric Zander
During their development on his other project named Minecraft Story Mode: The Rebuilt Trilogy, one of the co-writers for The Beast, Eric Zander, published a image made by another person without permission in order to announce his project on Reddit, however, that did not go right when someone called him out for "stealing".

While stealing is not the case, he still therefore suffered attacks by other Reddit users over accusations that he somewhat "stole" and failed attempts to defend himself misunderstood by the users for death threats.

Development
After Eric was cyberbullied on Reddit, he admitted to one of his friends (who is the director of the film, RaymanLover) that he was feeling immense hatred and anger "so big that he wanted to do something" and he wanted to express it not in a violent way, but in an "artistic" way.

As he said this, both RaymanLover and Eric planned a movie with the aim of making others understand not just Eric's way of being, but also others' way of being. Despite this, Eric recommended RaymanLover for putting in graphic violence and gore to shock the audience in a realistic way.

Eric told to RaymanLover: "We need to put out this type of content to show the world what can happen if a person not only attacks me, but also attacks another person who may have some other condition much worse than mine."

Eric and RaymanLover were primarily inspired by various character studies and psychological drama/thriller films, most notably Joker (2019), Taxi Driver (1976), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).

Release
The Beast was released theatrically worldwide on May 31, 2024. It was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA for substantial disturbing violent content, explicit sexual content and pervasive language throughout; after being edited, it was re-rated R for disturbing violent content, nudity, and language throughout.

Critical response
The critics' response were polarizing, with praise being directed at both the perfomances of Chalamet and Fanning, RaymanLover's direction, visual style, editing, score, and cinematography, although the critism was largely aimed towards the melodrama, portrayal of mental illness and use of graphic violence and sexual content.

Audience response
However, despite the critical response being favorable, public response was overwhelmingly negative. The film was considered intensely graphic by audiences, who even thought that the film glorified psychopathy, gratuitous violence and sexual attraction towards criminals, therefore the audience also considered that the film deserved to be banned. The film was also criticized due to Eric's involvement for the script in the project.

Reporters also noted that the film was suffering from bombed online reviews, and that websites such as IMDb in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico, and AlloCiné in France added warnings to the film's rating pages about unusual activity.

Trivia

 * This film can also be considered as a more violent and realistic interpretation of the famous Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.