2019 film directed by Tom Hooper
Cats is a 2019 musical fantasy film based on the 1981 West End musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which in turn was based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, another inspiration for the film. The film was directed by Tom Hooper, in his second feature musical following Les Misérables (2012), from a screenplay by Lee Hall and Hooper. It stars an ensemble cast including James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo in his feature film debut, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and Francesca Hayward in her feature film debut.
Filming took place from December 2018 to April 2019. It premiered at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on 16 December 2019 and went into general release in the United Kingdom and the United States on 20 December. Cats grossed $75.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $80–100 million, resulting in an estimated loss of $71 million after ancillary costs, and was considered a box office flop at the time. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who, along with audiences, were unsettled by the humanoid cats created through visual effects. The film is considered to be one of the worst films ever made.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.