Tom Hooper Directing "Cats" Movie- Page 2

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 9:30pm

Honestly I don't even know what to say. This is such a god awful asinine idea and everyone who agreed it should happen deserves be taken out back and shot. And the dip**** who thought "You know who'd be great at director? Tom Hooper. I mean his hyper realistic ugly ass movie Les Miserables sounded god awful and was filmed god awfully." Deserves to be shot twice. And I know it was Lord Andy. God damn man needs to have his hands taken off anything he's ever written after its been released to the public. He's the ****ing George Lucas of theatre.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 9:45pm

Go abstract. Abandon the dance elements. Abandon everything and do it up as a Fantasia style film. Combine animation, live action, CGI, whatever. 

 

The only possible way this could work is if it doesn't resemble the Broadway show, or the prior filming, at all.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 9:51pm

Best Supporting Actress 2019, Miss Fluffy 

For outstanding achievement in live-action meowing

Posted: 5/5/16 at 10:21pm

this is absolutely the most ridiculous film project I've heard about in years....san's being a Disney-esque cartoon this 100% is NOT FILM ADAPTABLE.  It's theater....tom hooper absolutely knows how to bring theater to the big screen, but it is just plain confusing that someone with his reputation would take this on....he must be getting paid LOTS of money from Really Useful and Webber.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 10:25pm

The words Tom Hooper directing are so over used in that thread title! 

[Broadway Forever2]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 10:29pm

Cat's is such a terrible musical in my onest opinion. This won't work. Why would he do this?

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 10:38pm

No.


darquegk said: "Go abstract. Abandon the dance elements. Abandon everything and do it up as a Fantasia style film. Combine animation, live action, CGI, whatever. 
The only possible way this could work is if it doesn't resemble the Broadway show, or the prior filming, at all."


...maybe.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 10:41pm

And just a sidebar, can we go back to the story that Lord Andy likes to tell about going to TS Eliot's widow about getting the rights?

Andrew Lloyd Webber visited T.S. Eliot’s widow to ask permission to make a musical. She informed him that Eliot had turned down Disney because he didn’t want the cats made into cartoon ****cats. Webber informed her he was thinking more “Hot Gossip” style.  

So... yeah...

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 10:48pm

^This. Cartoon cats and CGI cats is exactly what Eliot didn't want.

[¿Macavity?]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 11:16pm

non-stop26 said: "This movie is a joke right?

 

"

It will be.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 11:46pm

....why?

[Peter2]

Posted: 5/5/16 at 11:49pm

With featured roles for Flan and Ouisa Kittredge, I hope.

Updated On: 5/6/16 at 11:49 PM

[SweetLips]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 1:55am

icecreambenjamin said: "I think they should use real cats and make them sing.

 

The show ain't over till the fat cat sings !!

 

"

 

[jo]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 2:24am

A tweeter named Sydney has made this cast proposal --

 

Sydney‏@sguye2

 



 

Updated On: 5/6/16 at 02:24 AM

[devonian.t]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 5:14am

If Sidney Poitier couldn't make it work, no one can!

[Dave19]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 7:27am

What??!!??!!

The Les Mis film was one big presentation of the fact that Tom Hooper does not understand the material, the artform and this way of storytelling.

And what can we expect from this? A cat sitting on a pavement, filmed in a 1 take close-up shot, speaking 4 words and vibrate for a minute on the 5th? Thinking " look at me, isn't is extra raw this way if I speak one word and vibrate on the next, don't I look like a good acting cat now"?

And there aren't any crying scenes at all in Cats to get away with that approach.

So, what the hell?

If they make it a triumph of the fantasy, what acting through song per definition is, green screens, pre-recorded music, glorious singing and dancing, they need the opposite of Tom Hooper.

And even if he learned something from the Les Mis travesy, and it will be a triumph of the fantasy somehow, with cgi cats singing for example, he is still too tempted to have hollywood-non-singers attempting "live speaking and vibrating on certain notes" to butcher the music. 

But seriously, what is the point if the director does not understand that amazing singing can not be amazing acting?

 

[madbrian]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 8:04am

I think Garfield should play Old Deuteronomy.

[sarahb22]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 10:02am

And still, no film version of "The Secret Garden" :-P

[vfd88]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 10:46am

Excited to see Memory performed in mid-close up with Grizabella in the bottom left corner of the frame, looking off-screen.

Slightly off topic, but when did we all decide Les Mis was a "travesty"? $400+ million at the box office, decent reviews, 8 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) with 3 wins...none of this says "disaster" to me.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 11:12am

"Slightly off topic, but when did we all decide Les Mis was a "travesty"? $400+ million at the box office, decent reviews, 8 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) with 3 wins...none of this says "disaster" to me."

I decided that when I saw it.

[hork]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 11:24am

henrikegerman said: ""Slightly off topic, but when did we all decide Les Mis was a "travesty"? $400+ million at the box office, decent reviews, 8 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) with 3 wins...none of this says "disaster" to me."

I decided that when I saw it.

 

So did I. I don't base my opinion of a movie on how much money it makes or how many Oscars it wins.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 11:54am

The originating article in VARIETY states he's interested in having Suki Waterhouse in this. 

 

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/cats-movie-tom-hooper-1201767798/

 

[sarahb22]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 12:00pm

Not to turn this into "Les Miz: What Went Wrong", but I wasn't thrilled with the results either.  I was hoping for a certain "Robert Wise" style lushness, but what I saw was a sort of bizarre mash-up of odd camera angles, unnecessary extreme close-ups, and baffling decisions like "Let's have Hugh Jackman sing this quiet prayer like song IN A REALLY LOUD SHOUT BECAUSE THAT'S THE ONLY WAY HE CAN HIT THE HIGH NOTES."   

I'm really puzzled as to why he wants to film 'Cats'.  It doesn't seem like his speed at all.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 12:32pm

To me Les Mis was ineptly edited.  With some notable exceptions, almost every scene suffered from random and insipid cutting from one shot to another.  The fact that it got more oscar love than Into the Woods or even Sweeney Todd or made more money doesn't make it a better movie.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 1:01pm

The only way I can see this working on screen is if they start over conceptually. On stage, "Cats" is a mood piece of poetry set to (almost nonstop) dance.

On screen, I think you would have to take audiences outside the junkyard set. As each cat tells his/her story, you would cross cut to a visual depiction of the action being described in the songs.

Perhaps the junkyard could be filled with dancer-cats in costume, then the cross-cut scenes could be the CGI cats reenacting the scenes.

I dunno.

I just know it can't work as-is on film.