Anna Daniels
The big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Cats is already a disaster for a number of reasons. Chief among them are the unsettling cat-human hybrids at the center of the story, brought to life thanks to digital fur technology and motion-capture performances. Director Tom Hooper and the rest of his crew were working 36-hours straight up until 8am the morning before the world premiere, but it sounds like they didn’t quite finish everything they needed to.
Despite already being released in 3,380 movie theaters across the country, Universal Pictures is reportedly sending movie theaters a new version of the movie that will “include some improved visual effects.” This information comes from a screenshot of an e-mail sent to theater operations by Universal Pictures. It surfaced on Twitter in an exchange with Birth.Movies.Death editor Scott Wampler:
— mike blacklist (@mike_blacklist) December 20, 2019
Since the runtime of the movie is exactly the same, don’t be expecting any additional scenes with these cat monsters. But even so, this is still an unprecedented move by a studio for a major motion picture that’s already in theaters.
It should be clarified that we don’t know specifically what these visual effects updates are. They could very well be fixing something with digital environments or something like that. It’s hard to tell when you have such a visual effects heavy movie. But considering the fact that Hooper and his crew made changes to the visual effects for the cats themselves after general audience reaction to the first trailer, it would stand to reason that they’re still trying to touch the up, especially with how hard they were working to the last minute possible.
Are we coming into an era where major blockbuster movies with extensive digital effects are released like video games? Often times video game studios will release a video game in order to meet a release date, but there are updates made to the game on the very first day of release. That’s usually because there was something that needed to be fixed, but they didn’t have time to do it before the game was sent to shelves. It doesn’t seem likely for this to become standard practice for studios, but it’s still a fascinating development, especially because it’s Cats.
Cats is playing in theaters everywhere now.
Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) transforms Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-shattering stage musical into a breakthrough cinematic event.
Cats stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and introduces Royal Ballet principal dancer Francesca Hayward in her feature film debut.
Featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic music and a world-class cast of dancers under the guidance of Tony-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, In the Heights), the film reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular production design, state-of-the-art technology, and dance styles ranging from classical ballet to contemporary, hip-hop to jazz, street dance to tap.
The film also stars Robbie Fairchild (Broadway’s An American in Paris), Laurie Davidson (TNT’s Will), hip-hop dance sensation Les Twins (Larry and Laurent Bourgeois), acclaimed dancer Mette Towley (featured in videos for Rihanna and Pharrell Williams’ N.E.R.D.), Royal Ballet principal dancer Steven McRae, and rising-star singer Bluey Robinson.
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