Universal Looking to Bring ‘Cats’ to Movie Theatres

It seems that the huge success of Universal’s Les Miserables has reignited the movie studios interest in bringing the hit musical Cats to a movie theatre near you. This news comes from legendary Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is responsible for musicals such as The Phantom of the Opera and Evita, among others.

Webber shared in an interview with The Daily Mail “I haven’t seen the [Les Mis] film but it’s fantastic for musicals because everybody wants to make them again. Universal has now got Cats out of the drawer in which they locked it years ago when they bought the rights and suddenly they’re talking about a film.”

Buying the Cats property was an easy decision for Universal. The production, based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats has been a source of delight for audiences all over the US. For the last 30 years Cats has had a host of touring productions and more than 7,400 performances on Broadway; serving as the second-longest running show in the history of the Great White Way.

Webber did not share how Universal may try to transform Cats from a Broadway stage production into a full-length film. However, he did add in a statement,  “You never know in life. We never knew whether the public was going to love Cats until the moment we saw a cat go on stage. It could have been the most terrible moment of bathos in musical theatre. I remember sitting backstage waiting for the response. Somehow we got away with it.”

Granted one can only enter the film-making process with the same attitude of hope that audiences receive Cats the film as well as they did the stage play. More information regarding the project shall be released at a later time.