Cats Film Will Star Taylor Swift, Ian McKellen, James Corden and Jennifer Hudson

Taylor Swift and Ian McKellen

by Ben Travis |
Published on

Musicals are a very big deal at the box office at the moment – just take a look at the success of La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and the hype around Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. It’s no surprise, then, that Hollywood is bringing Cats to the big screen – and the first additions to the cast are a suitably starry bunch.

As revealed by ScreenDaily{=nofollow}, the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical will include the likes of Taylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson, joined by James Corden and Sir Ian McKellen. There’s no word on who’s playing which jellicle cat as of yet. On directing duties is Tom Hooper, who has form in musical cinema having helmed 2012’s Les Misérables. It will be intriguing to see which direction Hooper takes this in, and how exactly he plans to visualise the titular cats – will we be getting McKellen in feline makeup? Spandex? CGI kittens?

Cats is being produced by Universal and Working Title, and the shoot is expected to take place later this year. There’s no word on when exactly this one will dance and sing its way into cinemas, but with this cast and Hooper behind the camera it could be looking at an Oscar-friendly late 2019 / early 2020 launch.

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