The Nets have found their Beauties & Beasts

The Beauty & the Beast battle is heating up – both network pilots, the CW’s modern retelling and ABC’s epic fantasy take, have set their leading ladies and men. Take a look at the future of fairytale romance.

In the CW’s corner, for Beauty we have none other than Smallville veteran Kristin Kreuk set to play the young Detective. Her Beast, a survivor of a military experiment who is now Batman-ing on the sly, will be played by Jay Ryan, an Aussie lad making his US debut.

In the other, full fledged fantasy corner, ABC is doubling down on a pair of sexy accents (though the actors might not be able to use them). For Beauty, a Princess struggling to lead her country, ABC has tapped Ruth Bradley, a young Irish actress. As for her mercenary bodyguard Beast, he will be played by Scottish singer/actor Darius Campbell.

At the end of the day, both these shows will live or die based on the chemistry of their leading couples. Both sets are certainly ridiculously good looking enough, now we’ll just have to wait and see how they sizzle…