An all-star cast is being assembled for the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s international feline hit Cats.
Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, multiple Grammy winner Taylor Swift, Tony winner James Corden, and Tony winner Sir Ian McKellen have all been cast in the forthcoming Working Title motion picture, the production company confirmed. As previously reported, the film, directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper (Les Misérables, The King’s Speech) and penned by Billy Elliot’s Lee Hall, will begin filming in November.
Put away your claws, because Swift, Hudson, Corden, and McKellen are here to stay for the Cats musical, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Tom Hooper will direct this eclectic cast in the wildly popular Broadway musical about a “tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as ‘the Jellicle choice’ and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.”
Composed by Lloyd Webber and based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the original Broadway production opened in 1982 at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre (currently home to Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock), where it ran for 7,485 performances and 18 years. The musical was originally produced on Broadway by Cameron Mackintosh, The Really Useful Company Limited, David Geffen, and The Shubert Organization. A revival at the Neil Simon Theatre ran from July 2016 through December 2017.
This all-dance show’s action is set on a gigantic rubbish dump which, after dark, becomes alive with cats of all types, shapes and sizes. Soon there are cats all over the place, including the auditorium, gathering for the Jellicle Ball during which one cat will be selected by the Jellicle Leader and allotted an extra precious life.
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It remains to be seen whether Swift, Hudson, Corden, and McKellen will stay true to the spirit of the stage musical and don some skin-tight Lycra of their own, though I wouldn’t be surprised. Whether Swift can pull off the double-feat of singing and acting at the same is another question.
Hooper, who scored dozens of awards and nominations for his feature film adaptation of another popular long-running musical Les Misérables, is back to inflict his style of intense close-ups on Cats. This will be Hooper’s first film since 2015’s The Danish Girl, and his first musical since 2012’s Les Miserables.
A release date has yet to be announced.
STARS OF THE ORIGINAL CATS SHARE THEIR FAVORITE MEMORIES
(Excerpts) Read More at: Playbill.com and SlashFilm.com
