In the 1990s, an animated adaptation was initially planned by Amblimation, but was abandoned with the studio's closure. Soon afterwards Universal Pictures had purchased the film rights, and the project then lingered in development hell. In December 2013, Webber teased that Universal was putting the project into active development. In May 2016, it was announced that Hooper was hired to direct. In January 2018, Hooper began officially casting for the film, while looking into the technical aspect of whether the film would be entirely live-action or computer generated or a mix of both. In addition, Lloyd Webber announced that he would be writing a new song for the film adaptation. By mid December, James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, Les Twins, Ray Winstone, and newcomer Francesca Hayward were cast. At the same time, with a budget of $95 million, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early April 2019. Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England. In late July 2019, the first trailer was released, and received overwhelmingly negative reactions from viewers. Many viewers were unsettled by the mix of CGI and live-action used to portray the cats, and cited the effects as an example of the uncanny valley. In late October 2019, it was announced that the new song is titled Beautiful Ghosts, written by Swift and Webber.
The film features an ensemble cast that includes Corden, Dench, Derulo, Elba, Hudson, McKellen, Swift, Wilson, Les Twins, Winstone, and Hayward. Flaws - and there are a great many that would have never made the cut were this a perfectible studio recording - are conveniently swept under the rug of candid expression. The cast brought nothing. It wasn't that they were choosing to sing like that, they just couldn't do anything else. They could have done better with their amazing talents. Why couldn't the film cast actors who could actually sound good? The singing was so distracting at times it pulled me out. Hooper can be very good with actors. But his inability to keep any actor in line was, without a shadow of a doubt, pathetic and tragic.
Cats is something quite rare in movies these days - an unqualified disaster. The film was as though one was forced to ingest a toxic combination of LSD and Magic Mushroom. It fails so completely that you might suspect Mr. Hooper sold his soul to the devil to obtain the success of the theatre production and the Devil has just come around to collect.
Cats is something quite rare in movies these days - an unqualified disaster. The film was as though one was forced to ingest a toxic combination of LSD and Magic Mushroom. It fails so completely that you might suspect Mr. Hooper sold his soul to the devil to obtain the success of the theatre production and the Devil has just come around to collect.
Simon says Cats receives:
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