UPDATE (5.6.16): Variety reports that this news is now confirmed! Hooray! We’ve reached out for comment from Working Title and Universal but had yet to hear back at the time of publication (we will update you if that changes, so stay tuned).
PREVIOUSLY (2.8.16): Somebody call Princess Carolyn, because we’re betting she’s going to be really excited—apparently Tom Hooper (Les Misérables) is in talks to direct the long-gestating big screen adaptation of that classic T.S. Eliot poem-turned-mega Broadway musical, Cats. The Andrew Lloyd Weber musical was a force with which to be reckoned in its insanely long run on Broadway (1982 – 2000), and now it might be a movie.
Though Universal bought the film adaptation rights ages ago, The Sun is reporting that things are only just now good to go, if Hooper signs on to direct under Working Title (the same production company that helped him make his last mega-musical movie, 2012’s Les Miserables).
Naturally, the biggest question mark surrounding a production like this is bringing the aforementioned Jellicle cats to life. If you’ve never seen/heard of/witnessed a joke at the musical’s expense, allow us to set the stage for you: Cats is a musical about, well, cats—only they’re people dressed up as cats. They dive through the air like flying trapeze, bounce on wires, run up walls, swing through the trees, and balance on bars, ♬ because Jellicles can and Jellicles do! ♬
Needless to say, we’re curious to see how they would bring such an adaptation to the screen. And, obviously, we’d need this to tie into the next season of BoJack Horseman—for Princess Carolyn’s sake.
What do you think of a potential Cats adaptation? Let us know in the comments below.
Image:Â Marat Abdrahimov/Wikimedia Commons;Â GIF: Tumblr
Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of The Nerdist and a total Jellicle cat, obviously. Find her on Twitter (@alicialutes).
