What happens when you combine some of the greatest actors and singers of our generation with the words of Nobel Prize winning poet T. S. Eliot, the music of Tony-winning composer Andrew Lloyd Weber, and some of the creepiest CGI you’ll ever see? You get the movie version of Cats. The movie is scheduled for holiday release, December 20, 2019.
Cats is one of the most popular musicals on Broadway or in London’s East End. It is also popular with touring companies, making it familiar to people who will never attend a Broadway production.
Dame Judi Dench (M in the James Bond movies, Commander Root in the upcoming Artemis Fowl, Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love) will play Old Deuteronomy, traditionally a male role. Sir Ian McKellan (Gandalf in LOTR, Magneto in X-Men) will play Gus the Theatre Cat. Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift will be Bombalurina, and Idris Elbra (Heimdall in the MCU) will be Macavity, the feline equivalent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Moriarty Ray Winstone (Will Scarlet in Robin of Sherwood, Mac in Indiana).
The reactions to the trailer have been mostly polarized. You either love Andrew Lloyd Weber’s work on CATS, the original theatrical musical, or you’re creeped out by bizarre CGI effects that convert people into humanoid cats. This is digitally enhanced furry cosplay, in a way – some find it delightful, others call it “nightmare fuel”.
No, honestly, what could they possibly have been thinking?
Which side of the fence are you on? Let us know in the comments below.
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Susan Macdonald is the author of the children’s book “R is for Renaissance Faire”, as well as 26 short stories, mostly fantasy in “Alternative Truths”, “Swords and Sorceress #30”, Swords &Sorceries Vols. 1, 2, & 5, “Cat Tails” “Under Western Stars”, and “Knee-High Drummond and the Durango Kid”. Her articles have appeared on SCIFI.radio’s web site, in The Inquisitr, and in The Millington Star. She enjoys Renaissance Faires (see book above), science fiction conventions, Highland Games, and Native American pow-wows.
