According to many reports, the star power of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats” is getting classy as Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, and James Corden is set to join the cast of the movie. The film will be directed by the Oscar-winning Tom Hooper.
The shooting of the film will begin in November in the UK. “Cats” is based on Lloyd Webber’s musical and originally it was taken from T.S. Eliot’s book of children poems. The role of Grizabella will be played by Jennifer who won Oscar back in 2007 after her role in “Dreamgirls”.
However, the roles of Taylor Swift and James Corden are still unclear. The news was first broke out by Daily Mail and later it was confirmed by Variety.
In the history of musicals, “Cats” sits on top as the series has gained a lot of fame all over the world. The rumors of the movie version of “Cats” was under discussion for a long time. This is not the first time that Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are bringing a musical to the big screen. Back in 2012, the duo brought “Les Miserables” to the big screen. The movie made its mark in the industry and was nominated for the Academy Awards.
“Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” is the book of poems written by T.S. Eliot and the movie is derived from that book. Elliot published the book back in 1939 but he was unable to give it an overarching line of a story. After that, Lloyd Webber took the series of poems and tried to stitch those with the music. Other than Grizabella, some of the characters include Rum Tum Tugger, Skimbleshanks, and Old Deuteronomy.
The involvement of Corden in the musical was confirmed by her rep Jodi Gottlieb in an interview with USA Today. Hudson confirmed her involvement in the movie with a tweet on Friday. She captioned the post with cat emojis and said: “the cats are out of the bags”.
Well, I guess the CATS out of the bag! 🐱🐱🐱 pic.twitter.com/qMq6W5gAVb
— Jennifer Hudson (@IAMJHUD) July 20, 2018
Tom Hooper is preparing for the project from last two years. There is a tribe of cats known as Jellicles and the whole story of the play revolves around that club. Taylor Swift made her last appearance on the big screen back in 2014 in “The Giver”. In the history of Broadway, this is the fourth longest-running show. The role “Grizabella” is very interesting as the character sings “Memory” after losing everything. Along with Tom Hooper, the script of the series is written by Lee Hall. In his last musical “Les Miserables”, which cast Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, Hooper made a mark on the box office.
The musical version of T.S. Elliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was first performed back in 1981. The musical was transferred to Broadway as it started its journey from London West End. The cast of this upcoming movie has not that much of experience as Corden has only made one appearance on the big screen in “Ocean’s 8” and Taylor Swift last appeared on the big screen in “The Giver” back in 2014.
The director who won Oscar for “The King’s Speech” in 2011 has also reported casting Sir Ian McKellen in the movie. The other three producers – Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, and Debra Hayward – who are working with Hooper in “Cats” have already worked with him in his last musical “Les Miserables” back in 2012. According to the reports, the choreographer of the movie is Wayne McGregor. The series will also include a new song from Lloyd-Webber, as Daily Mail reported. The upcoming musical will use computer-generated characters and live footage.
When the musical version of T.S. Elliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was released in 1981, it earned $300 million. The story of the series is all about the cat tribe Jellicles and their effort to climb up “Heaviside Layer”, a spiritual place.