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Movie version of 'Cats' to begin shooting this year

Edited by Sonious, GreenReaper as of Mon 6 Aug 2018 - 14:40
Your rating: None Average: 3.3 (9 votes)

spielbergcats.jpgA movie version of the stage musical Cats has been partially cast. Actors announced include Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, James Corden and Taylor Swift. The movie will be directed by Tom Hooper. No announcement has been made on how the cats of the movie will be represented, as in as CGI special effects or the iconic pseudo-fursuits of the stage musical. Anouncements have said the movie will begin "shooting" in November, suggesting the movie will be live action.

The only actor to be connected to a character is Hudson, who will be playing the part of Grizabella, meaning she will be singing the song standard “Memory” for the movie. Some outlets have reported that McKellan will play the part of Old Deuteronomy, but this seems safe speculation rather than confirmation (there has been humorous speculation as to what part Swift will play, though no one seems to care much who Corden will play).

The musical features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, though most of the lyrics come from T.S. Eliot’s collection of nonsense poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, which the musical is adapted from. Webber will be writing a new song for the movie.

The original stage play was first performed in 1981 in London’s West End theater district. It opened on Broadway the next year. The play ended its run as the longest running show on either side of the Atlantic. It has since been passed, but still ranks fourth on Broadway and sixth on the West End.

Director Tom Hooper is probably best known for The King’s Speech, which won the Best Picture Oscar for 2010. His follow-up movie, Les Misérables, also was nominated for Best Picture. Hooper specializes in stage musical adaptations and biopics, both types of movies often considered “Oscar Bait”, which means that Cats might be in this vein. Even if singing cat movies are not often thought of as traditional “Oscar movies”, adaptations of popular Broadway and West End musicals have netted Best Picture Oscars for West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Oliver! and Chicago.

Cats has been notably hard to adapt into cinematic form in the past, possibly due to the complete plotlessness of the original material adapted by the musical, which itself adds the bare minimum of a story, relying more on the visual and aural spectacle of the music, dance and costumes to entertain the audience. Notably, Stephen Spielberg failed to helm an animated adaptation in the 90s (which would have taken care of two of his bucket list movies at once – a musical and an animated movie).

Note: The image above comes from that Spielberg attempt and has no other connection to this Hooper production and was only chosen to illustrate this article because no images have been released for the upcoming movie. Since every other outlet has already exhausted images from the stage musical, and this one looks really cool, I decided to utilize it instead.

Comments

Your rating: None Average: 5 (2 votes)

Technically, while Spielberg was a hands-on producer on the animated version that never got made, he wasn't going to direct it. That job would have been done by Simon Wells and Phil Nibbelink.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/stunning-concept-art-for-spielbergs-animated-cats-movie-...
https://one1more2time3.wordpress.com/tag/cats/

Your rating: None Average: 4 (4 votes)

taylor fucking swift lmfao

Your rating: None Average: 5 (3 votes)

I've seen Cats on stage. It's one of three Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals I've seen live. The others were Jesus Christ Superstar and The Phantom of the Opera.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

Your rating: None Average: 3 (3 votes)

Tom Hooper doesn't direct "Oscar Bait": he directs shamelessly immense buckets of sentimental 'Oscar chum', knowing full well the ovine Academy will lap it up like hungry Megalodons.

Your rating: None Average: 3 (3 votes)

Been enjoying Shark Week, I see.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (4 votes)

Couple notes here:

It's Ian McKellen, not McKellan.
The character who sings Memory is "Grizabella", not Grizelda.

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