After two trailers, Cats certainly looks like one of the more interesting and bizarre offerings of the holiday season. Despite the polarizing reaction to the looks of all the characters as human felines come to life, it is based on a popular Broadway musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber which could translate to some kind of awards season attention given that movie musicals due tend to get noticed. Earlier reports suggested Cats would miss the Golden Globes cut off but now the Tom Hopper helmed project may be ready after all.
Earlier reports suggested the film wasn’t ready yet, despite a December 20 release date looming. “Variety” now reports that the film has indeed been scheduled to screen for the Hollywood Foreign Press in early December, which could put it into contention for multiple nominations in the Globes’ best musical or comedy motion picture categories. The Golden Globe nominations are announced on December 9 so all HFPA members must see all 2019 films by December 4.
Despite a Globes screening being set, Hopper is still reportedly racing through Thanksgiving to finish a print by the deadline. More than 100 visual effects artists were tasked to work on the film which employed a lengthy and costly process to add CGI cat fur to the bodies of all the live-action performers.
The road to the big screen for Cats has been daunting at best. The film was shot last winter but has endured a lengthy post-production process. There were also many false starts before filming began on the film which cost an estimated $100 million+ to make, not including marketing costs. The hope is that the big names attached, which includes Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Ian McKellan, James Corden, Jason Derulo & Rebel Wilson, will put some butts in the seats this holiday season but after the release of two trailers, which were heavily ridiculed online, Universal Pictures is reportedly a tad worried about its prospects.
Director Tom Hooper filmed Cats similar to his 2012 adaptation of Les Miserables, where actors were required to sing live in the scenes. The key difference was the cast was assembled in a mythical world where everything was at least three times the scale of their human bodies to give the impression that the actors are much smaller. Some who have seen early footage said the scale of the characters is a bit confusing with some of the characters appearing small as mice and not the size of actual cats. That being said, Donna Langley, who is the chair of Universal Pictures, is high on the film based on the cut she has seen and believes it will entice audiences this holiday season.
I guess we’ll find out when Cats opens on December 20.
