Tom Hooper Directing "Cats" Movie- Page 3

[mamaleh]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 1:37pm

CATS is probably my all-time UN-favorite musical. I really hope this does not come to fruition.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 1:59pm

I loved it on stage, but to me it's a theatre piece the way "A Chorus Line" is a theatre piece. Same plot, pretty much. Just change cats for dancers.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 2:22pm

I think Cats is a lot of fun onstage, if not a great work of art, but why make this into a movie? There's barely a plot to speak of, and what works onstage doesn't necessarily work on film. Plus, Hooper did a terrible job with Les Mis- maybe a really inventive, visual director could do something with this, but he's the blandest, worst choice for the material. 

[sarahb22]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 2:40pm

wonderfulwizard11 said: "IPlus, Hooper did a terrible job with Les Mis- maybe a really inventive, visual director could do something with this, but he's the blandest, worst choice for the material. "

Yeah, I don't get it either.  Yes, "The King's Speech" was great, but in that case Hooper's odd framing style worked in the context of the story, showing how King George's stutter put him off-kilter with rest the rest of the world.

 In 'Les Miz', the weird framing setups made no sense at all.  Why put Eponine in one tiny corner of the screen and have the rest just be a blank wall?  Why show Marius singing at a 45-degree angle?  It was off-putting and bizarre.  

[pmensky]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 4:15pm

I know the idea for using CGI cats is weird, but are they using CGI for the live action "Beauty and the Beast?"  Are Mrs. Potts and Lumiere going to look like the costumes from the musical?  Are we going to see Thompson and McGregor's faces embedded in actual teapots and candlesticks, or are the enchanted objects going to be animated?  If that's what they're doing for BATB, it isn't that far-fetched if they do something like this with Cats, however bizarre and annoying it might be.  

[jo]

Posted: 5/6/16 at 5:06pm

best12bars said: "I loved it on stage, but to me it's a theatre piece the way "A Chorus Line" is a theatre piece. Same plot, pretty much. Just change cats for dancers.

 

"

 

Exactly what I also thought!  Just like in A CHORUS LINE, where dancers with varied backstories come together for an audition, CATS draws felines of different characters and backgrounds who come together for a reunion.  Except CATS was based on an English classic book by T.S.Eliot, where he vests into each creature the different characteristics found in humans.  Actually a very sophisticated mirror of today's society!

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/7/16 at 5:35am

I suspect they will try to give it more of a story. Think the movie of Hair(ball?). Yech - and I like Cats. 

[sueb1863]

Posted: 5/7/16 at 6:26am

To me one of the biggest problems is that the show really doesn't have a plot, it's just a series of very loosely connected songs punctuated with long dance intervals. There isn't much there to hang a movie on. It's a fun show to watch for the dancing and the singing but the story itself isn't exactly cinematic. Many of the songs are pretty random and just sort of pop up and happen for no apparent reason. That's enjoyable on a live stage where it doesn't matter if things don't always make sense because you're there to watch the dancing and listen to the music, but in a movie it all has to come together in a clear narrative flow.

I'm betting this never gets beyond the talking stage.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/7/16 at 7:12am

I thought the film adaptation of HAIR was wonderful. They did create a plot that wasn't in the stage show and wove the songs into it with the same through-line of Claude going off to war.

Perhaps they could do the same with CATS. Maybe the junkyard is going to be demolished or bulldozed to build a skyscraper (there could be signs posted), and the cats are gathering one last time in their sacred place to select their "chosen" one before it's all gone. It could create a sense of urgency and immediacy and give the proceedings a momentum they lacked on staged. It would also feel a bit more haunting and bittersweet. We could see the humans or their shadows from time to time as the bulldozers move in or the road is blocked off.

Anyway, they need to do something to make it feel more like a movie.

Updated On: 5/7/16 at 07:12 AM

[brian1973]

Posted: 5/7/16 at 7:15am

The only people who will go and see this are some tragic old show queens.. And NO ONE ELSE! What a stupid idea for a movie.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/7/16 at 12:15pm

Best, the film of Hair is a favourite of mine, you should know this by now. ??(though I may be reading the wrong tone into your comment, just as re reading mine, I see I never made that clear). 

For good or bad, unless you are making an art film, movies do need a narrative drive that theatre doesn't always, as you say. 

 

 

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 2:23pm

So, how's the Wicked movie coming?

http://www.playbill.com/article/cats-movie-slated-to-begin-filming-in-november

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 3:35pm

Production on the WICKED film is going swiftly.  

The film’s Madame Morrible, the legendary Julie Andrews, sent out emails earlier this week and is basically reaching out to people for select roles right now.   Universal is wise to have her reach out to talent directly as it’ll quickly bring interest to joining her in the film adaptation.   

Will keep you posted.  

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 6:54pm

Haha! Thanks for the laugh, Brody.

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 7:26pm

Meryl Streep as Grizabella or I ain't seeing this

[EmeraldOzian]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 7:58pm

I think they've signed Anne Hathaway for Grizzabella and Rihanna as Bombalurina according to circulating rumours.

 

Worth noting Cats was first announced in May 2016 and Wicked announced its release date in June 2016, I still think there will be plenty of time for both to be on target. I think Cats will maybe get released around September or October. This one just doesn't have the appeal or hype of a big Christmas blockbuster like Les Miserables or Greatest Showman. It's well known but I feel like it won't be as accessible to a wider commercial audience in the way a musical like Wicked does.

I expect this to be more like Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd over Mamma Mia and Les Miserables.

Updated On: 6/21/18 at 07:58 PM

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 8:10pm

So, entirely a mo-cap movie? Like Adventures of Tin Tin by Spielberg and the next to be seen Lion King?

Weird.

[EmeraldOzian]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 8:20pm

It's going to look weird on screen either way, cgi cats dancing or people dressed as Cats combined with the lack of a plot is going to make this film a hard sell. I feel like Cats doesn't lend itself well to the film medium it's going to be difficult to transfer it to screen.

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 8:22pm

Who asked for this?

Who wants this movie?

Do we need a movie of tight one take close ups of CGI celebrity cats singing out of tune/melody?

Does anyone want this?

Did anyone ASK FOR THIS?!

 

[Dave28282]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 8:37pm

Apologizing for singing by crying your way through a song is not gonna work in a CGI Cats movie, Tom!
I had hoped you learned from your previous disaster.

Any composer who lets this barbarian butcher the material after what happened must be senile. Andrew? 

But seriously, are theatre producers and composers really THAT clueless about the fact that apologizing for the material will never work? Are they that clueless and intimidated by the film world in general? Are they scared to point out that the pacing of certain scenes is very off in the les Mis film? I truly hope one day they will demand quality of real acting through real singing. Nobody ran out of the cinema when Julie Andrews or Lea Salonga sang in movies you know, audience members won't have mental breakdowns when movies don't apoligize for singing and yet bleat through songs. People long for sincerity. Les mis is not sincere. They apologize for singing so why are they singing? It harms the acting.

Updated On: 6/21/18 at 08:37 PM

[Dave28282]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 8:37pm

double

 

Updated On: 6/21/18 at 08:37 PM

[PatrickDC]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 11:10pm

I’m fine with this being green lit, but they BETTER film the Groltiger scene. I was so mad it wasn’t included in the earlier film. John Mills could not play Growltiger but they could have kept him as Gus and had a younger actor play GT. It’ll probably be cut because of the racist words used. 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 1:15am

That article reads like an April Fools joke. He’s writing a new song for Victoria? GTFO. I agree with the above sentiments. No one asked for this. No one wants it.

[bk]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 1:29am

Just read the article here - this sounds like more press agent BS to me, so let's just see if it's filming in November because I find that as doubtful as I found it back in 2016 when they first started this.

Updated On: 6/22/18 at 01:29 AM

[Gizmo6]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 8:14am

Dave28282 said: "Apologizing for singing by crying your way through a song is not gonna work in a CGI Cats movie, Tom!
I had hoped you learned from your previous disaster.

Any composer who lets this barbarian butcher the material after what happened must be senile. Andrew?

But seriously, are theatre producers and composers really THATclueless about the fact that apologizing for the material will never work? Are they that clueless and intimidated bythe film world in general? Are they scared to point outthat the pacing of certain scenes is very off in the les Mis film?I truly hope one day they will demand quality of real acting through real singing. Nobody ran out of the cinema when Julie Andrews or Lea Salonga sang in movies you know, audience members won't have mental breakdowns when movies don't apoligize for singing and yet bleat through songs. People long for sincerity. Les mis is not sincere. They apologize for singing so why are they singing? It harms the acting."

 

Lea Salonga hasn’t appeared in a musical role movie in the cinema.